Wimbledon men’s doubles finalist David Pel sheepishly apologised to a ball kid after narrowly missing their head with an errant shot. Pel and doubles partner Rinky Hijikata were a set down against the British duo of Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool at the time of the incident, which could have seen the Dutchman disqualified on the spot.

That’s exactly what happened to Miyu Kato at the French Open earlier this year. Between points, Kato hit a shot down-court which struck a ball kid and left them in tears. Even though she described it as ‘completely unintentional’, the Japanese competitor and her doubles partner, Aldila Sutjiadi, were defaulted after the chair umpire consulted with the supervisor.

Pel could have suffered exactly the same fate on Saturday. His backhand, which came within inches of hitting the ball kid stationed closest to the umpire’s chair, was struck after a shot from Cash had been called out.

A hand of apology was immediately offered by Pel, who quickly approached the ball kid to make it clear that the near-miss was unintentional. A repeat of the controversial disqualification Kato and Sutjiadi suffered at Roland-Garros in March would have been an anticlimactic way to end a doubles final in which two British hopefuls gunned for glory.

In the end, Cash and Glasspool managed it without the umpire’s intervention. The fifth-seeded British pair were solid throughout, winning 87 per cent of the points on first serve and converting three of their seven break points.

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They raced into the lead after storming the first set. And although Pel and Hijikata pushed them closer in the second, they sealed their first Grand Slam doubles title by dominating a tiebreak to come through 6-2 7-6 and become the first all-British men’s doubles winners at Wimbledon for 89 years.

Cash said: “A lot of people had been talking coming into this event, and there was a lot of pressure on our shoulders. The fact we have been able to do what everyone was talking about is surreal. It was unbelievable out here today.

“It’s something we spoke about going into the year. We had two goals. The first one was to make it to Turin and the other one was to win a Slam.

“A lot of people wouldn’t have believed us. Neither of us had been past a quarter-final coming into this year, but our team backed us the whole way. To do it here couldn’t mean more. To play on the most special court in the world, incredible.”