• June 13 down the years

Sue's bite proves worse than her bark

Sue Barker won the French Open at the age of 20 © Getty Images
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1976
The last British tennis player to win a singles title at the French Open. Sue Barker was a 20-year-old 'eight-stone blonde from Paignton' when she worked her way through a weak field. No Chris Evert, the best clay court player in the world; no Evonne Goolagong Cawley, another former champion there. You can only beat what's in front of you, the cliché goes - but even so. Still, here she was, in the final against Czechoslovakia's Renata Tomanová, whom she'd beaten in the final of the German Open. In Paris, she seemed to be on the way to another straight-sets win: four of the first five games went to deuce, but Barker emerged with a 4-1 lead. She won the set 6-2. But she had a habit of collapsing at the big events - big time here, dropping the second 6-0. Luckily there was an interval, and the chance of a talking-to from former player Tony Mottram, who'd guided her through the semi-final when she was also level at one set all. Today Barker came out firing in the third, serving for a 5-0 lead. A typical wobble followed: she had two break points for 5-1 before Tomanová pulled back to 4-2. But Barker won her next service game to love and had three Championships points at 5-2. She missed two of them, but then Tomanová double-faulted the title away. It was the only Grand Slam singles final Barker ever reached.

1987
Rugby Union's inaugural World Cup produced the first classic semi-final. Australia played percentage rugby, with a lot of kicking for possession, while France were - well, France. Their forwards were storming and dashing, their backs fast and flash. They were 9-0 down after 30 minutes thanks to two penalties and a drop goal by Michael Lynagh, but scored a try before half-time through Alain Lorieux, who had a great game in the second row. The lead changed hands throughout the second half. More good work by Lorieux led to a try under the posts by Philippe Sella before David Campese scored his 25th try in international rugby union, at long last breaking the world record set on February 4, 1933. But the match wouldn't be remembered for that. A typical run by Serge Blanco led to a try by Patrice Lagisquet - then Blanco showed both sides of his game in the last three minutes, gifting Australia the lead by passing instead of kicking out of defence, then sprinting in at the left-hand corner to win the match 30-24. The Final on June 20 had a lot to live up to.

1935
Boxing's Cinderella Man won the world heavyweight title. Back in 1929, Jim Braddock had gone 15 rounds with classy champion Tommy Loughran for the world light-heavyweight title - but that defeat was the first of six in seven fights, and he lost another 14 in the next few years. His right hand kept fracturing and he couldn't afford to have it set. He earned pittances from fights, worked on the docks, and often didn't work at all. Living in desperate poverty, he took a fight against up-and-coming Corn Griffith in 1934. Braddock went down in the second round but flattened Griffin as he came in for the kill. It was all over in three and Jim had earned another princely $250. Braddock then outpointed two top fighters to earn a shot at the world title. But that was the closest Cinderella would get to the ball. Surely. Max Baer had become champion by knocking Primo Carnera down 11 times. He outweighed Braddock by a stone and had a terrifying punch which had once killed a man in the ring. But we're back to that great ingredient of hunger. No-one in heavyweight history was ever hungrier than James J Braddock. Baer hadn't fought for a year, having spent the time openly satisfying his appetite for broads. Against Braddock, he did a lot of posing but remarkably little punching. If you didn't know better, you'd be wondering about someone making a few bucks by throwing a fight against an underdog. So even though Braddock wasn't one of the top heavyweights, he was allowed to plod to victory. Bizarrely, one judge gave Baer a share of the fight, but the other two were right in awarding Cinderella the title by a wide margin. Big Maxie was knocked out by Joe Louis in his next fight. So was Braddock, after savouring his year as champion.

1897
Paavo Nurmi was born in Finland. In the 1920s, most sports had a major star. Babe Ruth in baseball, Jack Dempsey in boxing, Bobby Jones in golf. Weissmuller ruled the pool while American football had Red Grange and cricket Jack Hobbs. Nurmi was the first superstar in athletics, the man who put the sport in the limelight. Taciturn and complicated, he set 29 world records at every event from 1500 metres to 20,000, plus many others indoors. He won nine Olympic gold medals, including a record five in 1924, which would probably have been six if the Finnish selectors hadn't left him out of the 10,000 metres, which he won in 1920 and 1924. If they worried about his workload, they shouldn't have: he finished fresh as grass after a cross-country race in murderous heat - and won the 1500 and 5,000 in the space of two hours (July 10). He'd practised by setting world records at both distances on the same day three weeks earlier! You'd smile at his training mileage now (it included long periods of walking), and he didn't have to take the supplements that appeared later on. But he showed the world how fast it was possible to go - on a vegetarian diet, too. He was one of the favourites for the Marathon at the 1932 Olympics, only to be declared a professional for accepting generous expenses on his hugely successful trips to indoor events in the States. In other words, banned for doing what everyone else was doing. When he was 36, he was still good enough to outsprint the Olympic champion to win the 5,000 metres at his national championships, and he was never beaten in a race longer than that. There's a statue of him outside the Olympic stadium in Helsinki, where he carried the torch at the 1952 Games.

Michael Schumacher won his seventh Canadian Grand Prix in 2004 © Sutton Images
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2004
Michael Schumacher won the Canadian Grand Prix for the seventh time, ten years and a day after the first. He went on to win the drivers' title for the fifth year in a row.

On the same day in 1999, Mika Häkkinen also won in Canada, to overtake Schumacher at the top of the drivers' table after the German started on pole but made a mistake and crashed into a wall, one of several bumps and bashes in the race. Häkkinen retained the title that year.

1982
Nurmi's latest successor was born in Ethiopia. With Kenenisa Bekele, there's only ever room for lists. And to say that, at his peak, he's been virtually unbeatable, able to set world records that still stand as well as prolong a murderous sprint finish. In the 5,000 metres, he lost a clash of champions at the 2004 Olympics (August 28) but won the 10,000 that year and did the five-and-ten double four years later. He did the same double at the 2009 World Championships, winning the 10,000 for the fourth time in a row, and won the 3,000 at the World Indoors in 2006. He set the current world records in the 5,000 (May 31, 2004) and 10,000 (August 26, 2005) and won a record 11 races at the World Championships in cross-country.

2003
The British record set by Geoff Capes on May 18, 1980 was broken at last when Carl Myerscough put the shot 21.92 metres. In his 1981 autobiography Big Shot, Capes believed 'If the new generation has to beat the old records, of course they are going to have to take drugs. There is no way anybody can reach beyond those levels without them'. There's no evidence Myerscough was on anything at the time, though he was banned for two years after failing a drugs test in 1999.

1915
Don Budge was born in California and grew into one the greatest tennis players of all time. Tall and red-haired, with a heavy racquet which gave him a crunching serve and above all one of the almighty backhands, he was the first player to win the Grand Slam, completing it at the US Open (September 24, 1938) after retaining his Wimbledon title by thrashing poor 'Bunny' Austin (July 1). In both years, Budge also won the Wimbledon doubles, the Davis Cup, and the US singles, after losing the 1936 Final to Fred Perry when he was 19. If Budge hadn't turned pro immediately after the Grand Slam, who knows how much more he would have won? He was only 23 and utterly dominant.

1998
Against Ireland in Bloemfontein, rugby union winger Stefan Terblanche scored four tries on his Test debut for South Africa. The other new Springbok, fly-half Gaffie du Toit, kicked 12 points. Ireland were only 13-10 down at half-time but lost 37-13. On June 19 the following year, Terblanche scored five tries against Italy, a new national record that was broken on June 11, 2005.

1934
Shirley Bloomer was born in Grimsby. At the French tennis championships, she was singles champion in 1957 (June 2) and runner-up the following year. The nearest she came to a Wimbledon title was losing an all-British doubles Final in 1955. She married Chris Brasher (born August 21, 1928), Olympic gold medallist and co-founder of the London Marathon.

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