Born Elias Victor Seixas Jr. in Philadelphia on August 30 in 1923, he was nearly 30 years old when he lifted the title at Wimbledon and his tennis career took off only after the Second World War, during which he had served as a test pilot in the Pacific.

His father, owner of a plumbing-supply company, was a keen amateur tennis player and took advantage of the local tennis courts located across the street from where they lived. By the time Seixas was five, he was playing regularly.

But tennis was just one sport in which the young Victor excelled. He played squash to a high-level, was a member of the freshmen basketball team at the University of North Carolina and was a keen baseball player. His great-grandfather was a pitcher for the Phillies and Seixas had hoped to follow him.

But tennis was where his real talent laid and, because the two sports were both played in the summer, he had to make a choice. Seixas made his debut at the US Open in 1940, the first of a record 28 appearances that only ended in 1969 at the age of 45.

By the time of that opening appearance, Europe was already at war and the following year the United States was dragged into it following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

At 18, Seixas joined the Army Air Corps and spent three years in Papua New Guinea. It was his job to make sure that the planes were air-worthy after the parts had been shipped across the Pacific Ocean from the US to be constructed on site. He learnt to fly 14 different aircraft, from the P-51 Mustang to the B-24 Liberator Bomber.

As a result, Seixas hardly played any tennis for three years.

After the War ended in 1945, Seixas completed his studies at the University of North Carolina (UNC) where he won the Southern Conference singles championship in 1948 and the doubles championship in 1949, and was an All American.

He graduated in 1949, the same year that UNC awarded him the Patterson Medal, the school's top medal in athletics.

By 1951 Seixas was ranked number four amateur in the world, two spots below Dick Savitt, winner that year of the Australian and French Opens. In 1953, by the time he reached London to compete at Wimbledon, he had already reached the semi-final of the Australian Open and been beaten in the final of the French Open by Australia’s Ken Rosewall, who was at the start of a record-breaking career.

At Wimbledon, the top seeded Rosewall was knocked out by unseeded Danish player Kurt Nielsen, who reached the final. Seixas, ranked number two in the tournament, outclassed him, winning 9-7, 6-3, 6-4. In an era where the Grand Slam tournaments were open only to amateur players, he won a reward of a Lilywhites voucher worth £25 ($31/€29), which he spent on a new sweater.

In 1954, Seixas was knocked out in the quarter-finals by fellow American Budge Patty, but later in the year won the US Open by beating Australian Rex Hartwig 3–6, 6–2, 6–4, 6–4 in the final. In those days, the courts at Forrest Hill were grass and this shaped Seixas’ game. "It was my theory to try to never let the ball bounce," he said. "I had to learn to volley because I was up at the net all the time."

One commentator of the time described Seixas as the "fastest man to the net".

Seixas also enjoyed plenty of success in doubles. He won the Australian Open, French Open twice, and US Open twice in doubles, and the French Open, Wimbledon four times, and US Open three times in mixed doubles.

He was also a member of the US team that lifted the Davis Cup in 1954 at a time the tournament was considered even more important than the Grand Slam events. 

In 1957, Seixas announced his retirement and went to work as a stockbroker at Goldman Sachs to earn some money having, unlike many of his tennis compatriots, never turned professional. But he never really quit and continued playing in tournaments, including the US Open. In 1966, he had already won titles in Tulsa and Detroit when he entered the Pennsylvania Lawn Tennis Championships in Haverford. In the round of 16 he came up against a promising young Australian player Bill Bowery, at 22, who was more than 20 years younger.

The match began on July 20 at 4.15pm. At 6:30pm, they still had not decided the first set. Seixas saved set point at 15-16. He saved another one at 17-18. Then another at 29-30, and one more at 32-33 before finally giving way. Bowrey took the opener, 34-32 only for Seixas to bounce back to take the next two sets 6-4, 10-8 and win the match.

Seixas had a spell working as a tennis pro in West Virginia before moving to California where he was employed as a bartender after his second divorce, where most of the customers had no idea who he was.

He has retired in Mill Valley, located about 14 miles north of San Francisco. It was there on Wednesday at the local tennis club, where some of Seixas’ trophies are displayed, that a special 100th birthday party was thrown for him.

A television showing the US Open was on in the background but there was no doubt which tennis player was the star attraction on this occasion. A birthday video featuring hall of famers Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Maria Conchita, Rosie Casals and Stan Smith was played to wish Seixas a happy birthday, and to remember his career.

Seixas had beaten Smith, a future Wimbledon champion, in the first round of the US Open during that memorable year of 1966 when he was supposed to have retired nearly a decade earlier. Smith clearly never held that defeat against him because a few years ago he arranged for Adidas - for whom he designed an iconic tennis shoe - to sign up Seixas as an ambassador worth $2,000 (£1,600/€1,900) per month.

“I asked them, ‘How long is this for?’” Seixas, now in a wheelchair and with fading eyesight, said. “They said, ‘Until you die, or we go bankrupt’.”

Let’s hope that Adidas will be paying out for a few more years yet.