Meanwhile, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, whose plan to reach the North Pole first had been thwarted by both Frederik Cook and Robert Peary, had secretly turned his sights on the South Pole.

If the 22-year-old Scot wins, he will become the first British male to win a major since Fred Perry's last Wimbledon in 1936 - a statistic British tennis fans have long wearied of thinking about.

He also moved into a select group made up only of Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson and Andre Agassi as men who have won all four of the grand slam events.