In 1953 he played the American Budge Patty in the third round, winning a 93-game match in four hours and 20 minutes after saving six match points. But he lost to Kurt Nielsen in the semi-finals.In 1954, by now married to an Englishwoman, Rita Anderson, and living in England, he again had to beat Patty in the semi-finals, before overcoming Rosewall in the final. Writing in the next day's Daily Telegraph, Lance Tingay said: "The warmth of Drobny's reception as a champion could not have been greater had he been a genial Englishman." By 1960 he was, playing his last Wimbledon as a British citizen, having gained his passport in 1959 (it makes him the only person to have played at Wimbledon under four nationalities).After his Wimbledon victory his monetary value increased, though having never turned professional all his income from tennis had to be expenses only. His great contests with Patty led to their being invited to play a number of exhibition matches. At the height of "shamateurism" few believed he went away from these matches empty-handed, though the figure being bandied about at the time – that both men were on $100 a match – would not have made them secure for life, even in those days.Eschewing the chance to retire after his Wimbledon triumph, Drobny played another six years. He spent much of his middle age as a somewhat roly-poly manager of the sports shop he owned and ran in west London. As his health began to decline – he had a mild stroke – he made very few public appearances.His last two visits to his homeland were both for events in the sports he graced.

In 1985 he went back to Prague to be at the world ice hockey championships. And in 1996 he accepted an invitation to celebrate both his own 75th birthday and the centenary of the Czech Tennis Association. It was on the occasion of the Czech Republic's first Davis Cup semi-final since the break-up of Czechoslovakia (a match the Czechs lost to Sweden), and proved the only time Drobny ever set foot in the new Czech state.Chris Bowers. As the long and distinguished political career of John Hume draws to a close it is no disrespect to the scale of his achievement to remark that there is a paradox at its heart. As the long and distinguished political career of John Hume draws to a close it is no disrespect to the scale of his achievement to remark that there is a paradox at its heart. For no single figure did more to make the peace process work and establish a lasting political settlement between the peoples of the island of Ireland, as Hume himself would put it.

Indeed, no single figure has done more over such a long timescale to make acceptable to Unionists the idea of Catholic Nationalists taking part in the government of the province.John Hume enjoys the distinction of having served in both the 1974 power-sharing executive and the current version, as well as participating in almost every other of the countless political initiatives of the last 30 years or so. Against all that, however, has to be laid the judgement that Hume's own party, the SDLP, which he has led since 1979, and the kind of moderate nationalism it represents, is in a perilously weak state. In the general election in June, and even as Hume himself secured yet another impressive personal endorsement, Sinn Fein overtook the SDLP both in seats and votes.This paradox is relatively easily resolved. For it was Hume's determination to drag the republicans of Sinn Fein into democratic politics that helped bolster their appeal and, in turn, erode the SDLP's electoral base. It is doubtful that Hume ever saw his job as being to put himself out of a job, but on the occasion of his retirement from the leadership, his successor will certainly have a difficult job both to revive the SDLP and the faltering peace process.As far as the peace process goes, that task may have been made marginally easier by last week's atrocities in America. Although there has been little chance that the IRA would return to large-scale violence, that possibility has been made still more remote by the scenes of suffering we have witnessed.

Even the Real IRA might think twice about another "spectacular" against, say, the tower at London's Canary Wharf, given President Bush's announcement of a global war against the terrorist. And a changed attitude in the White House, less tolerant towards republican fundraising activities in America, would also help to give the peace process some support. Besides, it is hard to imagine Noraid wanting to go about its usual activities in the current climate of American public opinion.What is less hopeful is the climate of opinion in Northern Ireland itself. Even though last week of all weeks no one was watching, the ugly sectarian protests around the Holy Cross school in the Ardoyne district of Belfast persisted. The inter-party talks have continued, but at a desultory pace. All this inaction, stubbornness, even complacency, when the next deadline for a resolution of the political crisis looms, and when many might have hoped that the scenes from America – and the number of people from both sides of the border killed or injured – might have jolted the parties into some sort of compromise.On 22 September, another deadline will lapse and the Secretary of State, John Reid, will once again have to make a decision about the nature of any further suspension or, just possibly, to call fresh elections.

It is another dangerous pass in the tortured progress of the peace process. As we look back upon the achievements of John Hume, we must recognise that his greatest hopes and ambitions remain disappointingly unfulfilled.. The apparently abortive effort by Pakistan to secure the hand-over to the United States of the world's most wanted individual ensures two things: that Washington will intensify its preparations for a military response and that the panicked uncertainty in and around Afghanistan will mount. The apparently abortive effort by Pakistan to secure the hand-over to the United States of the world's most wanted individual ensures two things: that Washington will intensify its preparations for a military response and that the panicked uncertainty in and around Afghanistan will mount. There is not the slightest guarantee, however, either that duress will force the surrender of Osama bin Laden – the man now named as chief suspect in last week's terrorist attacks – or that his surrender will solve a great deal beyond assuaging America's thirst for revenge. The identification of Mr bin Laden has reduced to one simple target an exercise that is fraught with hard choices for every country concerned. For even if the sting of this one murderous mastermind and financier is eventually drawn, the operation would risk dispersing its life-threatening poison around the globe.