US Open History for September 5

Written by: Staff on 5th September 2011

US Open History for September 5

Samantha Stosur of Australia hits a return to Maria Kirilenko of Russia during their fourth round match on the seventh day of the 2011 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA 04 September 2011. The US Open runs through 11 September 2011. EPA/JUSTIN LANE |

1949 – Twenty-one-year-old Pancho Gonzalez 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. Fifteen days later, Gonzalez turns professional and does not appear at Forest Hills again until 1968.

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.

1975 – After losing in the women’s semifinals to Chris Evert, 18-year-old Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia appears at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service office in New York and asks for political asylum.

1989 – Chris Evert is defeated by Zina Garrison, 7-6, 6-2, in a quarterfinal match that marks Evert’s 113^th and final US Open match. Evert completes her career with a match record of 1,304-145 and 18 Grand Slam titles, as well as a US Open record of 101-12 and nearly $9 million in prize money.

1990 – Pete Sampras ends Ivan Lendl’s bid for a record ninth straight U.S. men’s final with a 6-4, 7-6, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2 victory in the quarterfinals.

1992 – John McEnroe defeats Richard Fromberg, 6-3, 6-1, 6-4, in a third round men’s singles match—the 65th victory of his US Open career—in what ultimately is McEnroe’s final US Open singles victory.

1996 – Defending champion and No. 1 seed 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 US Open.

1997 – Venus Williams and Irina Spirlea duke it out in a dramatic women’s semifinal, with Williams prevailing, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(7), after overcoming two match points and a controversial changeover collision with Spirlea.

1998 – In a match that concludes at 1:33 a.m., Carlos Moya defeats Michael Chang, 3-6, 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-3, in three hours and 50 minutes. Moya, the reigning French Open champion, staves off three match points in the third set before prevailing in the fifth set.

2001 – The 32nd edition of the Andre Agassi-Pete Sampras rivalry produces the match of the tournament— and one of the best matches in US Open history. The players receive a standing ovation just before the fourth-set tie-break and Sampras wins, 6-7(7), 7-6(2), 7-6(2), 7-6(5), with neither player having lost serve in the match.

2009 – The Day Session in Arthur Ashe Stadium finishes with two of the most compelling matches of Week 1, with American upstart Melanie Oudin posting a three-set victory over Maria Sharapova and John Isner knocking off Andy Roddick in a fifth-set tie-break. In all, the Day Session does not end until 9:17 p.m. and the Night Session does not begin until 10 p.m.—believed to be the latest start to a Night Session in US Open history—with the ceremony honoring Pancho Gonzalez. To accommodate the late start, the scheduled first Night Session match between Dinara Safina and Petra Kvitova moves to Louis Armstrong Stadium and James Blake and Tommy Robredo follow the Gonzalez ceremony in Arthur Ashe Stadium, beginning their match at 10:35 p.m. and wrapping up at 12:56 a.m.

2010 – Samantha Stosur wards off four match points to defeat Elena Dementieva, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, in a fourth round match that starts at 10:57 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 5, and wraps up at 1:35 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 6. That makes it the fifth-latest finish in recorded US Open history, and the latest ever for a women’s match, eclipsing the 1:30 a.m. completion of Gabriela Sabatini’s victory over Beverly Bowes in 1987.