September 5 is not only going to be an epic day at the 2009 US Open with some barn-burning matches on the schedule, but some of the sports most historic matches and events have happened on this day. Perhaps most significantly, on September 5, 1932, the tennis shorts made its debut by Brit Bunny Austin. Chris Evert’s glorious US Open career came to end 20 years ago in 1989, while 60 years ago, Pancho Gonzales won his second U.S. title in a famed final against Ted Schroeder. Roscoe Tanner’s upset of Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors epic win over Adriano Panatta also happened on this day in tennis history. The excerpt from the September 5 chapter of my book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com) is posted below.
1989 – The storied U.S. Open career of Chris Evert comes to an end as the six-time champion is defeated by Zina Garrison 7-6, 6-2 in Evert’s final U.S. Open match in the women’s quarterfinals. Says Evert, “I’m not disappointed that it’s my last match at the Open, I’m disappointed isolating the match and thinking how I played it, and, well, that’s one of the reasons I’m retiring.” Evert, a six-time U.S. Open champion, makes her debut at the U.S. Open in 1971 as a 16-year amateur, reaching the semifinals en route to winning a record 101 of 113 tournament matches. Says Garrison, “When I went over and sat down, I thought about what had just happened, that this is the last time we’ll see Chris here. She’s been so much to the game. She’s such a lady. To be the villain to have to take her out of this tournament, it’s good for me, but it wasn’t good for me. It might not be the way I want people to remember me, but at least I will be remembered.” Writes Robin Finn in the New York Times of Evert’s emotional and dramatic final moments on a U.S. Open court, “Evert calmly packed up her racquets on the Stadium Court for the last time, gave a smile and a rotating wave of farewell to her fans and put a steadying arm around the shoulders of Garrison, who couldn’t suppress a few confused tears.”
1996 – Defending champion and No. 1 seeded Pete Sampras, fighting off fatigue and becoming ill on court, outlasts Alex Corretja 7-6 (5), 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (7) in the quarterfinals in one of the most dramatic matches ever at the U.S. Open. Sampras vomits on the court after the second point of the final-set tie-break and fights off a match point at 6-7 in the tiebreaker with a stab volley. At 7-7, Sampras, struggling with his strength, serves a second-serve ace to take an 8-7 lead. Sampras appears barely able to play another point – and doesn’t need to – as Corretja double-faults the match away on the next point. Says Corretja following the match, “It was probably the best match of my career – the best one and the worst one.”
1949 – In one of the greatest U.S. championship finals in the history of the sport, 21-one-year-old Pancho Gonzales needs 67 games – the most ever in a U.S. final – to defeat Ted Schroeder 16-18, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 for his second straight U.S. title. Allison Danzig of the New York Times writes of Gonzales and his two-sets-to-love comeback that “no holder of the crown has shown more perseverance in enduring and surmounting the barbs of adversity than did the 21-year-old, six-footer from Los Angeles.” Fifteen days later, Gonzales turns professional and does not appear again at the U.S. Championships at Forest Hills until 1968, when the tournament is finally open to professional players.
1932 – Bunny Austin, the British Davis Cup standout and losing Wimbledon finalist to Ellsworth Vines earlier in the summer, introduces tennis shorts to the sport in his four-set win over Berkeley Bell of the United States in the first round of the U.S. Championships at Forest Hills. Writes John Kieran of the New York Times, “Austin came dressed for the occasion. He was practically in running costume.”
1951 – Sixteen-year-old Maureen Connolly wins the U.S. women’s singles title for the first of three times with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 victory over Shirley Fry, played in front of a surprisingly small crowd of 2,500 at the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills. Connolly becomes the youngest player to win U.S. singles title – a record broken in 1979 by Tracy Austin, who is three months younger the Connolly. Writes Allison Danzig of The New York Times, “The final was so nerve-wrecking in the concluding stages, with the outcome hanging in the balance to the last stroke, that Eleanor Tennant, Miss Connolly’s coach, was near collapse at the end. She had to be administered to in a box in the marquee as her pretty little protégé let out a scream of joy and ran forward to great her beaten opponent.”
1979 – Roscoe Tanner fires 11 aces, breaks the net with his bullet serve and upsets top-seeded Bjorn Borg 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (2) in 2 hours, 26 minutes in a much-hyped night match in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. Tanner’s win avenges his five-set loss to Borg in the Wimbledon final two months earlier. Tanner’s blistering serve breaks the net cord in a crucial part of the match – with Tanner serving for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set and the score knotted at deuce, Tanner just serving an ace to save a break point. Tanner and Borg leave the court while a maintenance crew fixes the net, causing a six-and-a-half minute delay. Borg saves two match points before breaking Tanner’s serve to even the set score at 5-5. Each player holds serve again before Tanner runs away with the fourth-set tie-breaker 5-2. Says Borg of the upset loss, “I made too many errors and Roscoe put the pressure on my all the time that I had to break his serve. Tonight, I couldn’t do that.”
1978 – Jimmy Connors rallies from a 3-5 fifth-set deficit and defeats Adriano Panatta 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 in 3 hours, 36 minutes in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. Panatta serves for the match at 5-4 in the fifth set and is two points from victory at 30-30. Connors hits one of the most incredible shots in the history of the Open at 5-6, deuce in the final set – an around the post backhand passing shot. Writes Barry Lorge of the Washington Post. “Panatta saved four match points as he served at 5-6 in the tingling final set, but Connors got to match point for the fifth time on an astounding shot – a running backhand down the line off a ball 10 feet out of court and practically behind him. Panatta’s forehand cross-count volley would have been a sure winner against virtually any other player. Connors played the shot one-handed, unable to get his right hand on the racket for his usual two-fisted grip on the backhand, and drilled the ball around the net post. It landed inches inside the sideline as Panatta watched forlornly.” Says Connors, “When I took off after that ball, I knew I could get to it, but I didn’t know what I’d be able to do with it. First, I just wanted to get it back, to make him play another shot. But he wasn’t in great position, so I went for it. It nearly took the net judge’s head off.” Says Panatta, “In Italy, we have a saying: “He did not want to die.” I think that is the biggest positive point for Jimmy. He fights on every point, so you can’t relax not even one single point.”