• September 13 down the years

Clijsters back with a bang

Kim Clijsters became the first mother to win a Grand Slam title since 1980 © Getty Images

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Some big tennis finals at the US Open.

You could say Kim Clijsters retained the title in 2009. She won it in 2005 and this was her first time back there. In 2006 she'd been kept out by a wrist injury, and she retired in 2007. This was only her third tournament since coming back since having a baby - and if giving birth really does make your stronger, she provided evidence here. Playing as a wild card, she beat both the Williams sisters, and her opponent today looked an easier proposition, a 19-year-old Dane in her first Grand Slam final. But Caroline Wozniacki had won more matches than anyone that year, and she served for the first set at 6-5. Clijsters broke back with some of the forehand winners she hit all day, saved two break points in her next service game, then won the set 7-5. In the second, she broke to love for a 4-2 lead, and yet another forehand set up the overhead which won the set 6-3. Clijsters was the first mother to win a Grand Slam singles title since 1980 ( July 4).

2010 was the year Rafael Nadal became the seventh male in history to complete a career Grand Slam. Nadal produce a great performance to triumph over Novak Djokovic in four sets in the US Open final. Djokovic played the aggressive type of tennis that is required to beat Nadal, but he scarcely managed to equal Nadal's obstinate consistency.

The 1998 tournament featured the first all-Australian men's final since the same day in 1970. Pat Rafter had won the title the year before by beating Britain's Greg Rusedski in the Final ( September 7 ). Now he had too much craft for big Mark Philippoussis, who relied almost entirely on a massive serve (he was nicknamed 'Scud', after the missile) and booming groundstrokes. Rafter was less musclebound and his serve-volley game had a better rhythm. He won the first set easily enough, then came through a mini crisis. When Rafter lost the second set, he looked tired, suffering from the five-setter he'd played against Pete Sampras the day before. And he threw his racket down when he let a 40-0 lead slip at 2-2 in the third. But he held serve and won the last ten games of the match.

In 1970, Tony Roche took the first set against little Ken Rosewall, who was 35 by then and hadn't won the US Open for 14 years. Earlier in the tournament, Rosewall had taken revenge on another Australian, John Newcombe, who'd outlasted him in the Wimbledon final. Rosewall used the rhythm of Newcombe's serve-volley game against him - but Roche presented a different problem, attacking in bursts. He won the first set 6-2 before Rosewall settled down. The third set was the crux. Rosewall lost a 4-2 lead and had to save three set points at 5-6. But he won the tie-break 5-2 (they were shorter in those days) and took the fourth set 6-3.

If Rosewall's achievement was remarkable for a 35-year-old, Margaret Court's was historic. She made it an Aussie double by winning the women's singles - and completing the first Grand Slam since 1953 ( September 13 ). In today's final, big Madge towered over Rosie Casals, who was a serial semi-finalist but reached only two GS finals. She was more successful as the doubles partner of Billie Jean King, who beat her in the next US final. Today Casals was faced with the two sides Margaret Court showed in so many big matches: dominating in the first set, flaky in the next. The score was 6-2 each time, with Court losing five games in a row in the second, including 11 of the last 12 points. But she won the first three games of the deciding set on the way to taking it 6-1.

In 1959, Maria Bueno became the first non-American woman to win the US singles title since 1937. In the final, she beat Christine Truman, the first British girl to reach the final since Eileen Fearnley-Whittingstall in 1931. The 18-year-old Truman had won the French title that year, but her baseline game was no match for Bueno's stern serve and athletic volleys, mixing power with grace. The Brazilian won the first set 6-1, dropped her serve to allow Truman to level at 2-2 in the second, but broke back immediately. She went 5-3 up thanks to a lucky net-cord and a volley that puffed the chalk, then served out for 6-4. Bueno won the title another three times, while Truman played in a traumatic Wimbledon final two years later ( July 8).

Young Tom Morris first won The Open when he was 17 © Getty Images

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1872
The first name on the Claret Jug. This was the first year the famous trophy was presented to the winner of the British Open - and it couldn't have been won by a more appropriate golfer. Young Tom Morris won the tournament for the fourth time in a row (it wasn't held the previous year). He won it for the first time when he was 17 ( September 23, 1868 ), succeeding his dad Old Tom as champion, and he was only 21 now. The whole event was compressed into this one day, with three rounds of 12 holes each. On a windy damp course which held up players' putts, Morris shot 57-56-53 to finish three shots clear of Davie Strath, who was five ahead of him after 18 holes but shot 61 for the last 12. Young Tom was found dead on Christmas Day 1874. Only one other golfer has won a Major four times in a row (November 5, 1927).

On the same day in 1930, another Major was won by a golfer born in Scotland. Tommy Armour came out of the First World War with only one good eye and one good arm, but he was still good enough to beat former champion Gene Sarazen in today's final of the US PGA, which was a matchplay event at the time. Armour took the title at the last of the 36 holes before winning the next Major on the calendar, the Open at Carnoustie ( June 5 ). He was the last British-born golfer to win the US PGA.

1970
The first New York Marathon. Actually this isn't quite true. New York had been the first city in the New World to host a Marathon, way back in 1896, soon after the race at the first Olympic Games ( April 10 ). But it was Boston that staged the longest-running city Marathon, starting in 1897. Today was the first year of the New York race as we know it. The standard of runner wasn't high: the winner was a 30-year-old New York City fireman who took 2 hours 31 minutes 39 seconds to get round. Gary Muhrcke nearly didn't run at all. A leg injury had stopped him training for the last for three weeks, and he didn't sign up until a quarter of an hour beforehand. Five miles from the finish, he caught 19-year-old Tom Fleming, who later won the race twice. Then Muhrcke passed Moses Mayfield with less than three miles to go. Only 126 runners took part. In later years, the number was limited to 37,000.

1981
A British runner set the inaugural IAAF world record for the women's 5,000 metres. Paula Fudge clocked 15 minutes 14.51 seconds in Knarvik. The current world record was set by Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba in 2008: 14 minutes 11.15, while the British best belongs to Paula Radcliffe: 14:29.11 in 2004.

1924
In rugby union, the British Lions took a skeleton squad to South Africa. Too many top players withdrew from consideration, including Wavell Wakefield, who'd just led England to the Grand Slam. Flying wing Ian Smith did go, but he was starved of the ball in the absence of centres Phil Macpherson and Leslie Gracie, his Scotland team mates. England's Ronnie Cove-Smith captained the Lions, but they suffered a number of injuries and were hammered 17-0 in the second Test, conceding four tries. A brave draw in Port Elizabeth today left them 2-0 down with one to play. The only scores were two first-half tries, Springbok No.8 Jack van Druten steamrollering over from a lineout after Ireland fly-half Bill Cunningham had given the visitors the lead. The Lions were disappointing with the wind behind them in the second half. They lost as many games as they won on that tour, including the fourth Test, and didn't win a series in South Africa between 1896 and 1974.

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