• January 30 down the years

A final Grand Slam for Martina

Martina Hingis: So good she could win a doubles title with Anna Kournikova © Getty Images

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1999
Martina Hingis won her third Australian Open in a row. In the final, she came through in two easy sets against the unseeded Amélie Mauresmo. This was Hingis' fifth Grand Slam singles title, but the power of players like Lindsay Davenport and the Williams sisters began to leave her behind and she underwent several operations on her ankles. Although she reached another five Grand Slam finals, including the next three here in Oz, this was the last she ever won. She was only 18.

2007
Stephen Hendry's 700th century in competition. He made 127 in the third frame of a 5-1 win over Robert Milkins at the Malta Cup.

1999
Ulster won the Heineken Cup final in Dublin. In a match without tries, Simon Mason kicked six penalty goals and David Humphreys dropped another. Christian Labit and Mickaël Carré kicked penalties for Colomiers, who lost 21-6.

2000
Americans love sports with stats, so they must have adored this Super Bowl. By beating Tennessee Titans 23-16, St Louis Rams won the NFL for the first time since 1951. Their 63-year-old coach Dick Vermeil was the oldest in any Super Bowl. He'd coached Philadelphia in the 1981 game, a record gap of 19 years. Their 40-year-old punter Mike Horan was one of the oldest players to appear in a Super Bowl. Their quarterback Kurt Warner became the only one to throw 400 yards in a single Super Bowl. In 2002 and 2009, he threw the second and third highest totals, each time for the losing side. St Louis fielded seven players who'd faced criminal charges, Tennessee six! Stats aside, this was one of the Super Bowls thrillers. The Titans came from 16-0 down to 16-16 before Isaac Bruce scored a 73-yard touchdown from Warner's pass. In the very last seconds, Tennessee's Kevin Dyson was held in a tackle by Mike Jones. Stretching for the line with his arm, Dyson came within inches of tying the game, one of the most famous images in the sport.

1993
Monica Seles won her third Australian Open. Steffi Graf took the first set of the final - but everyone knew it was just a gesture of defiance against someone who was taking over. Seles reasserted her position as world No.1 by winning the next two sets, running away with the third 6-2. Before she came along, it was Graf who'd taken the title three years in a row.

1990
At the Commonwealth Games, England picked up four gold medals in judo. Heavyweight Elvis Gordon got his by winning his four bouts in 57, 103, 12, and 63 seconds. Meanwhile 58-year-old bowls legend David Bryant lost the bronze medal match to Richard Corsie of Scotland. Bryant was Commonwealth Games champion in 1962, 1970, 1974, and 1978. He missed out in 1966 because bowls wasn't included and 1982 and 1986 because he was considered professional. It was all Australia in the pool. Glen Housman and 16-year-old Kieren Perkins broke 15 minutes for the 1500. By the end of the swimming, Australia's Hayley Lewis had won five gold, Lisa Curry-Kenny four in her comeback after giving birth.

1989
Bruce Kimball was sentenced to 17 years in jail. In 1981, he'd been hit head-on by a drunk driver. Every bone in his face was broken, as was his left leg. His liver was lacerated and his spleen had to be removed. He recovered to win bronze in highboard diving at two World Championships and silver at the 1984 Olympics, each time behind the unbeatable Greg Louganis. In 1988, a horrible irony. He was a drunk driver himself when he drove into a group of pedestrians, killing two teenagers and injuring six others. He was released in 1993.

1955
US Open winner Curtis Strange was born. He won the event in 1988 and 1989, shooting 278 each time. He tied for second at the USPGA in 1989. After his second US Open success, he didn't win another PGA tournament. Strange. He played in the Ryder Cup five times and was captain in 2002.

1957
Payne Stewart was born. He was US Open champion in 1991 and 1999. He also won the USPGA in 1989. Conspicuous in his coloured tops and plus-fours, he finished equal second in two British Opens. Soon after winning his second US Open, he died in a plane crash.

1937
Boris Spassky was born in Leningrad. Even by Soviet standards of the day, this was one genuine chess prodigy, world junior champion in 1955. But his natural ability was never matched by much of a work ethic. He lost his first go at the world title in 1966, strangled by that old python Tigran Petrosian, who was happy to draw 17 games while winning 4-3. Spassky beat Petrosian three years later - but having reached the top, the natural laziness crept in, and he was no match for an obsessive like Bobby Fischer, who took the title from him on September 1, 1972 - though Spassky would have been within his rights to claim a 3-0 lead, which would have ended the contest. Their 'rematch' in 1992 was purely a money-making exercise; Spassky lost that too. He helped the USSR win the Olympiad six times.

1983
In the Super Bowl, Miami Dolphins went 17-10 up when Fulton Walker returned a kick-off 98 yards for a touchdown. But Washington quarterback Joe Theismann was always in control. He kept handing the ball to running back John Riggins, and Riggins kept making yards, including 43 in one carry to put the Redskins in front and make him the MVP. With Theismann throwing two touchdown passes, the Redskins won 27-17.

1911
The Lonsdale Belt is given to a boxer who wins three title fights in a British weight division. The first was handed out today, to that brilliant featherweight 'Peerless' Jim Driscoll, after he stopped Spike Robson in the 11th round.

1966
Margaret Court won her semi-final and therefore her seventh consecutive Australian tennis title, which equalled the record for any Grand Slam singles championship. Nancy Richey of America withdrew from the final with a knee problem. Court was getting used to this by now. The previous year, she'd beaten Maria Bueno, who retired in the third set of the Final.

1991
The 21-year-old Austrian Stephan Eberharter won the combined at the World Skiing Championships. Luxembourg's Marc Girardelli, trying to win the title for the third time in a row, crashed out ten metres from the finish of the slalom section.

1901
Rudi Caracciola was born in Germany of Italian parents. One of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time, he was especially good in wet weather, known as Der Regenmeister, master in the rain. He won the European Championship, forerunner of the Worlds, three times, and was the only driver to win ten national Grands Prix before the War, including his own German GP six times from 1926 to 1939. Even Michael Schumacher won it only four times.

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