July 7th, 1996 – the day Wimbledon’s famously strict on-court dress code was challenged in audacious fashion.
At the All England Club’s Centre Court, there were excited murmurs throughout the crowd of approximately 14,000 as the hard-serving Richard Krajicek prepared to face off against unseeded American underdog MaliVai Washington for the title.
The Sunday was shaping up to be a classically British afternoon of strawberries and cream, Pimm’s, as well as polite applause. Until she arrived.
Clad in nothing but a white apron, Melissa Johnson vaulted from both the sidelines and a life of quiet anonymity into the spotlight.
The 23-year-old from London had been working as a club waitress during her summer holiday, and on a completely youthful whim, decided to treat everyone in attendance to a show – including a Royal Box featuring the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Prince and Princess of Kent, along with 17-year-old Lord Frederick Windsor who “looked as if he hadn’t enjoyed a tennis match so much for years.”
“I just said to the people I was working with, ‘I’m going to do it, I am going to get my kit off,'” she later told The Sun.
“It was my suggestion entirely. I did it for a bit of a laugh, although I was encouraged by all the others.”
Like a streak of lightning – if lightning had an hourglass figure and unshakeable confidence – she bolted nude from the stands, tearing across the length of the manicured court, before being apprehended by security.
Gasps rippled throughout the crowd. Then they cheered and gave her an ovation. Krajicek grinned ear to ear, while Washington was a deer in the headlights.
“I had just walked out, and suddenly, this woman is sprinting towards me. I didn’t know whether to cover my eyes or clap,” he recalled years later.
In conversation with The Sun, Melissa Johnson said: “My employers were very po-faced. They demanded my pinny back immediately. I suppose that means I’ve got the sack.”
“I am a bit of a naughty girl, and I definitely have a wild streak in me. I knew it had never been done before – and it had to be done, really, didn’t it?” she added.
“When the players came out I thought, ‘It’s now or never,’ so I just did it.”
The iconic moment had something of a talismanic effect on Richard Krajicek, who would take the title in blistering straight sets: 6–3, 6–4, 6–3. He became the first – and remains the only – Dutchman to ever win a Grand Slam singles title.
MaliVai Washington, on the other hand, jokingly claimed it threw him off his A-game. At the 1996 Wimbledon trophy ceremony, he stated: “I look over and see this streaker. She lifted up the apron, and she was smiling at me. I got flustered and three sets later I was gone; that was pretty funny.”
And as for Melissa Johnson, she was fined £200 and released without further charges after being detained for the match’s duration. A fair price for what she called “the best day of my life.”
Offers from tabloids, men’s magazines, and late-night TV flooded in, though most of them were refused – she’d gotten her fill of the limelight. Or in this case, centre-court-green-light.
As written by Peter Sneddon in his 2001 book Tennis’ Strangest Matches, the 1997 Wimbledon streaking incident was “both the most sensational and remarkably unsensational event” in the tournament’s 119-year history – “all over in a flash and scarcely an offended soul to be found.”
To the point where the club itself saw the humour in the stunt, issuing the following statement shortly thereafter:
Whilst we do not wish to condone the practice, it did at least provide some light amusement for our loyal and patient supporters, who have had a trying time during the recent bad weather.
“Moments like these remind us that tennis, for all its discipline and decorum, is still gloriously human,” writes The Ace Hub.
“The 1996 Wimbledon final gave us a champion, but also a story. A match remembered not only for its outcome, but for the unexpected burst of freedom that danced across the most revered court in the world.”
Now that you’ve read all about the 1996 Wimbledon streaker, check out the following stories about history’s less serious chapters:
