• July 2 down the years

Martínez stops Martina making it ten

Conchita Martínez won her only Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 1994 © Getty Images

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A day for iconic Wimbledon finals.

In 1994, Conchita Martínez stopped Martina Navrátilová winning the singles title for the 10th time. Navrátilová's ninth was already the record, but that was won four years earlier (July 7), she was 37 by now, and although Martínez was a clay-court specialist, she'd learned to enjoy the grass here. In the final she stayed on the baseline, but didn't just defend. Going for broke with her passing shots, she played the big points particularly well. She needed a massage during the second set, which she lost, but held her nerve in the decider, surviving two break points at 4-3 before winning it 6-3. It was her first Grand Slam singles final, the only one she ever won, and the end of an era: Navrátilová's last singles match at Wimbledon - though she was still reaching finals there in 2003 (July 6).

In 1938, Helen Wills Moody won her eighth and last Wimbledon singles title, the record broken by Navrátilová. Eight would have been nine or ten if Wills Moody had bothered to cross the Atlantic every year. Instead she missed four Wimbledons after winning her first in 1927. She probably only popped over this time because someone mentioned she could break Dorothea Chambers' record of seven singles titles (July 4, 1914), but nonetheless she beat Helen Jacobs in the final for the fourth time. Three years earlier, Wills Moody had saved a match point (July 6), but there was nothing like that today. Jacobs was unseeded by now, Wills Moody won in straight sets, and the last one she ever played at Wimbledon ended 6-0. It was her 50th singles win in a row at the championships, a record unmatched by Navrátilová - or anyone else.

In 1949, Louise Brough played three Wimbledon finals in one day. Three long ones, too. She retained her singles title by beating former champion Margaret duPont in a hard-fought match with an unusual scoreline, losing the second set 6-1 but winning the first and third 10-8. She and duPont retained the doubles title, winning 8-6 7-5. Brough lost the mixed after the longest match of the three, losing the first set 9-7, winning the second 11-9, then losing the third 7-5. She played 117 games and came within a few points of winning the triple crown for the second successive year - which would have been a record three in a row, because she won all three titles again in 1950.

The 1954 men's singles final was one of Wimbledon's big emotional occasions. Jaroslav Drobný was the sentimental favourite. Born in Prague but naturalised British, he'd lost in two previous finals and was 32 by now. His opponent Ken Rosewall was at the other end of his career, a 19-year-old who'd already won the Australian and French titles the previous year. They provided a classic. Rosewall produced some tremendous winners on the run - but Drobný, a distinctive figure with his sunglasses and big left-handed serve, used the lob effectively against his smaller opponent. They shared two long sets, then Drobný won the third easily. The fourth was almost as long as the first. If Rosewall had won it, his youth might have won him the fifth. But Drobný produced a deceptively gentle serve on match point to take it 9-7. At the time, 58 games was the most in any Wimbledon singles final, even though the match spanned only four sets. The crowd got the result they wanted, especially as Rosewall obviously had years in which to win the title. Instead, their sympathies were reversed when Rosewall reached the Final twenty years later (July 6).

Max Woosnam was a reigning Olympic champion when he won the Wimbledon doubles title in 1921. He and Randolph Lycett came through a weak field to win an all-British final against the Lowe brothers, Arthur and Gordon, in straight sets. Lycett won the event for the third time with a third partner in 1923. Woosnam (born September 6 1892) later captained England at football.

Gareth Thomas scored the first try of the match when the Lions took on New Zealand in the second Test but the All Blacks fought back to win 48-18 © Getty Images

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2005
Having lost the first Test easily (June 25), the British & Irish Lions were crushed in the second. They took a surprise lead when captain Gareth Thomas went through a big gap for a try converted by Jonny Wilkinson, who hit a post with a penalty that would have made the score 10-0. The Lions were nominally still in it at half-time, when they trailed 21-13 - but Wilkinson wasn't fully fit, and his opposite number at fly-half was man of the match, Dan Carter scoring two tries and kicking five penalty goals. His 33 points and New Zealand's 48 were records against the Lions. One of the All Blacks' other three tries was scored by their captain Tana Umaga, who'd spear-tackled Brian O'Driscoll out of the series in the first Test. Simon Easterby scored one for the Lions, but 48-18 was about right and there was only pride to play for on July 9.

2010
Andy Murray's Wimbledon dream was dashed for another year, although it was hardly a surprise as he crashed out to world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals. The British No. 1 did his best to pump his fist and cajole the partisan crowd but ultimately the 2008 champion was too good, winning 6-4 7-6(6) 6-4 on his way to an eighth grand slam title.

1996
Cedric Sims sounds more like a pre-war county cricketer than a modern American heavyweight - and he boxed like one. Tonight was his last pro fight. He lost in the first round to Norris Irving - which was normal for him. Sims fought only eight bouts as a professional, losing all eight by knockout and surviving the first round only once… When he lost in the second. He was overmatched in only his second fight, losing to big-punching Shannon Briggs (July 19, 2003), who was also fighting for only the second time. And it never got any better for our Ced.

2008
It's possible the oldest and the youngest international rugby players appeared for the same team in the same game. Assuming Hugo Porta's last match for Argentina was unofficial (April 17, 1999), 43-year-old Phil Gittus became the oldest when he came on as a sub in the last minute and scored a try to take the Philippines past a hundred points. They beat Brunei 101-0 in Guam. His team mate Ben Saunders was 15.

1921
The first boxing match to earn a million dollars at the gate was also the first world championship fight broadcast on the radio - as well as being the usual triumph of hype over substance. It was billed as a classic boxer v puncher contest, Orchid Man versus Ape Man, war hero against slacker. Jack Dempsey was making his third defence of the heavyweight title he'd won two years earlier (July 4). Georges Carpentier was the pride of France, a boxer-puncher and snappy dresser who'd been decorated in the First World War while Dempsey was put on trial for avoiding it. So people paid a landmark sum to see him get his comeuppance. But if this was billed as good v bad, it was also heavyweight against light-heavyweight. The crowd at Boyle's Thirty Acres in New Jersey - and Dempsey himself - were shocked at how slim Carpentier was. Although he was the reigning world light-heavyweight champion, he was a blown-up middleweight, even a former European welterweight champion. And Dempsey was one of the most destructive punchers in heavyweight history, winning the world title by flooring the champion seven times (July 4, 1919). Carpentier was as brave as ever and caught him with some good punches, but one of those broke his own thumb in the second round. Dempsey knocked him out in the fourth. Not for the first or last time, a lot of people had paid a lot of money to watch a mismatch.

1948
Britain's Henry Cotton won the British Open for the first time in 1934 (June 29). Today he won it for the third and last time at the age of 41, 11 years after his second success. In the second round, he rolled back the years with a 66, just short of the record 65 he shot in 1934. Then he recovered from a third-round wobble, made mistakes in the fourth, but still finished five shots clear of defending champion Fred Daly. Roberto de Vicenzo, who was joint third, won the Open at last 19 years later (July 15).

1904
René Lacoste was born in Paris. Detached, solid, phlegmatic, analytical, subtle, shrewd. There's no warmth in Big Bill Tilden's description, but 'nuff respect. Lacoste was the youngest and smallest of France's famous tennis-playing Four Musketeers, but very much their leader, the man who masterminded their eventual conquest of Tilden in Grand Slam tournaments and the Davis Cup. Accurate and tenacious from the baseline, he was a great tennis thinker, keeping notes and inventing weapons, like the slice serve he reserved for big points against Tilden. Lacoste was runner-up at Wimbledon in 1924 when he'd just turned 19, won the singles and doubles the following year, then missed consecutive finals on his birthday before regaining the singles title in 1928. He was US champion two years in a row and reached five consecutive finals at the French, winning three in alternate years. In 1927 he beat an ageing Tilden in the finals of both tournaments, after a very lucky break at the French (June 5). Lacoste led France to four consecutive Davis Cup Finals, winning in 1927 and 1928 - then retired when he was only 24. When he died at the age of 92, he was a very rich man from persuading people to pay extra for tennis shirts with a crocodile stitched on the front.

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