Since the start of 2014, Roger Federer has shown that you can win by serving and volleying – you just have to know how to do it. Because he’s so talented, I don’t think there’s anything that Roger can’t do on the tennis court. He’s simply realising now that his best chance of winning is by coming to the net and playing like nobody else does, because it takes them out of their comfort zone. Since he won Wimbledon from the back of the court, and then Rafa came along and did the same, there’s a belief that that’s the only way to win, but if you’re good enough to serve and volley, and your volleys are good enough, you can still win Grand Slams. Novak has the talent for the volley, he just hasn’t put himself into the position to use his volleys a lot, but that might change. Same with Rafa – he has great volleys, he’s just never needed to use them. Tennis doesn’t want finals without rallies, but nor does it want matches without volleys.

Here’s a bit of advice for tennis players at any level, especially a decent level: don’t play if you’re on antibiotics. I did, and it ended in disaster and heartbreak. In fact it thwarted my last realistic chance of winning a fourth Wimbledon title.

After my defeat to Sampras in 1995, I had a reasonable year, peaking at the right times. I was a semi-finalist at the US Open, losing to Agassi, and I won the ATP World Championship, which was being played for the last time in Frankfurt. I then won the Australian Open, my sixth and final Grand Slam title. The fortnight in Melbourne was a lesson in never judging a player by his form in the first week of a major. I had to go to five sets to beat Greg Rusedski in the first round, and was then two sets down to Thomas Johansson in the second round. In fact I was very lucky in the Johansson match – he had a break point early in the third set, I hit a backhand that was probably out, but it was given in (there was no Hawk-Eye then) and I got away with it. That proved the turning point, and I only dropped two more sets in my remaining five matches. Sometimes the top players start a Slam badly, but if they have a moment when their game suddenly clicks, it can be like letting the genie out of the bottle. Both my Australian Open titles had a moment in the first week where I went from being a player struggling to play anything like my best tennis to being a genuine title challenger – against Camporese in 1991 and Johansson in 1996.

After winning the Australian Open, I was fourth in the rankings, and knocking on the door of the world No. 1. I was Wimbledon runner-up, US Open semi-finalist, ATP World Champion and Australian Open champion. Unfortunately I had a bad clay season, but getting back on the grass brought my form back. I won Queen’s beating three quality grass courters in the last three matches: Pat Rafter, Wayne Ferreira and my old rival Stefan Edberg in the final. Stefan had announced he was retiring at the end of the year, so the match had something nostalgic about it, but I won, and it left me one of the favourites for Wimbledon. In fact the seeding committee promoted me from my ranking of fourth to being the No. 2 seed behind Sampras, who had won the last three titles. In other words, I was No. 2 seed 12 years after my first main draw Wimbledon, and I felt everything was coming full circle.

It did come full circle, but not in the way I intended. The player who left on crutches on the middle Saturday of 1984 left with torn ligaments in his right wrist on the middle Saturday of 1996. It was the worst possible injury for a right-handed tennis player, and I went from genuine Wimbledon hopeful to thoughts of retirement.