(May 7, 2010) Tennis Hall of Famer John Newcombe plans to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his second Wimbledon crown at the All England Club next month after recovering from skin cancer surgery and a plastic surgery to rebuild his nose.

The 65-year-old Aussie underwent an operation to remove a growth from the right side of his nose after doctors detected cancer beneath the skin.

"It's just a small little white thing you can hardly see it," Newcombe told Australia's Channel 10 television network in comments published by the Associated Press. "It's a cancerous growth so (the doctor) had to cut ... and I finished up having to have 64 stitches."

Following the three-and-a-half hour surgery doctors used cartilage from Newcombe's ear to rebuild his nose.