The queue outside the Carlton Club in Cannes was four deep and 50 metres long; inside, the builders were still making stands for seats that had sold out weeks before and the surrounding grand villas were removing their roof tiles.

There was a clear blue sky on February 16, 1926, when two of the greatest tennis players in history met for the first and only time in a match that attracted royalty, the wealthy, the curious and the dissolute from all over the globe. It was a game, as one journalist wrote, which "made continents stand still".

It was billed as the Goddess v the American Girl and there was not even standing room left, which is why the owners of the surrounding properties removed their roof tiles and sold the viewing holes. There are pictures of heads in hats watching the action. Tickets were being touted for the equivalent of $44, which was calculated to equal a fine suit, smart shoes, first-class train travel from Paris and a night in the grandest Cannes hotel.

In one corner was the idol of all France, the Goddess, Suzanne Lenglen, who seven years earlier had shocked the sporting world when she won her first Wimbledon title with bare arms and a sliver of calf on display. As she walked to the Carlton Club, which was a tawdry outpost on the French Riviera without electricity or hot water, she was the champion of tennis and would eventually win 31 Grand Slam titles.

In the opposite corner and missing home more with each hour she spent in this hostile land, was the American Girl, Helen Wills. Three times Wills had won the US Open, a tournament Lenglen had famously flopped in when she made her one and only appearance in 1921. The tale of Lenglen's capitulation was damning; she suffered a coughing fit and was jeered off court after defeat by the reigning champion, Molla Mallory. The following year at Wimbledon, revenge was sweet and Mallory was crushed in just 23 minutes in the final. Lenglen had no love for American upstarts.

The extra stands at the Carlton Club were only finished after people had started to take their seats. The Grand Duke Cyril of Russia, King Gustav of Sweden. Count de Bourbel and the Rajah and Rani of Pudukkottai were squeezed in with the hordes. The editor of the New York Times claimed his beloved sport was under assault by people desperate to "degrade it by outbursts of rowdyism". When Commander George Hillyard, the umpire, took control, it was not even noon.

Lenglen had powdered her face to conceal the strain caused by a midnight row with her dominating father. She had sacked him, failed to sleep and arrived on court a little jittery, but only a connoisseur could spot the flaws. In the makeshift stands the world's media gathered, typewriters balanced on knees and completed copy was dropped through the gaps to boys paid to sprint with the words to a wire service office.

The first set went to 4-3 and both had chances before Lenglen closed it out for a 6-3 win and a one-set lead. However, in their mistakes and breaks of the opening set they had each shown flashes of what was coming in the second set. The American writers hammered furiously against a deadline thousands of miles away and above their heads the searing winter sun moved higher and higher.

Set two, the Carlton Club. It started with a love game for Wills, her first of the match so 1-0 to the American. The second game went to deuce and they were slugging it out. The crowd broke into "rowdyism", according to all the reports. This match was an international incident. Lenglen saved the game: 1-1.

Wills fought back strongly and aggressively in the third: 2-1 the American. Lenglen was in trouble, her service broken and cracks were starting to appear: 3-1 the American. Lenglen came back, breaking serve and winning two games: 3-3. The seventh went to deuce four times and Wills took it as Lenglen was tiring: 4-3 the American. Lenglen won the next game, but was helped by a bad call on an out ball: 4-4. Wills stormed back and then Lenglen had a love game: it was 5-5 and the crowd of 4000 paying punters, plus the hundreds in trees, on roofs and standing on buses were witnesses to what became known the following day as The Great Match.

In the moments before the 11th game of the second set, Wills needed a few moments to breathe. Lenglen was ready to serve, ready to crush. It was a dramatic short stop before Lenglen won the game. It was 6-5 and the Goddess was in front.

Lenglen was serving for the match and the championship of the world. At match point, she played a long shot that was out, but there was no call and Wills walked to the net to congratulate her master. However, it was finally called out and the game continued. Wills eventually broke serve: 6-6. Wills served to advantage, but Lenglen took the game: it was 7-6 and both were shattered.

The Great Match ended in game 14 of the second set. Lenglen was the champion, she had the roses and was carried from the tarnished clay in sweet victory.

She turned professional that year and made a fortune in exhibition matches.

Wills went on to equal Lenglen's total by winning 31 Grand Slam titles. They never met in a singles match again, but what they did that morning on the Côte d'Azure will never be forgotten.