Tennis Tie-Break: The seven most memorable US Open moments

Ahead of this year's US Open, which begins on Monday, Telegraph Sport looks back at the most memorable moments in the tournament's history. 

7. The waiting is over

Ok, so we may be a little biased but Andy Murray's agonising win over Novak Djokovic in the final five years ago was pretty spectacular. 

Having been tennis's perennial bridesmaid and lost in his first four slam finals - including a devastating Wimbledon defeat to Roger Federer two months earlier - Murray finally won his first major at the 2012 US Open.

But he could not have done it in a more painstaking, quintessentially Murray-like fashion. Djokovic, his opponent in the final, had won 27 straight matches in the two hard-court grand slams, and was raising the bar for durability and defiance. With the New York wind threatening to blow a gale, an astonishing 55-shot rally in the sixth game of the match set the tone for a draining final that could so easily have gone Djokovic's way.

Murray got off to the ideal start by taking a see-sawing opening set 7-6 that included a 24-minute tie-break and five missed set points for the Scot. Murray then looked to be running away with the second when he opened up a 4-0 lead, but back came Djokovic to level things at 5-5. Murray steeled himself again to win the next two games to open up a two sets to love lead, and Great Britain's 76-year wait for a male grand slam champion looked to be coming to an end. 

Though while that may have been true in theory, no-one watching thought a two-sets lead provided Murray with much security against the arch-escapologist Djokovic. Sure enough, the Serb rallied and reeled off the next two sets to force a decider. 

At that point, the odds swung in Djokovic's favour. Surely Murray could not come back from this? Surely he was about to become the first man to lose in his first five slam finals? Surely he had blown the best chance he had ever had to win a major? 

It was at this moment that Murray went for a bathroom break, looked at himself in the mirror and told himself to "leave the court with no regrets". The pep talk seemed to work, because a rejuvenated Murray stepped back into the Arthur Ashe Stadium and won the final set comfortably to claim a momentous 7-6, 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 victory after four hours and 54 minutes of excruciating tennis. 

A bewildered Murray obsessed over putting his watch on in the immediate aftermath of the win, but once he had regathered his equilibrium, he joked: "I hope there is not another 76-year wait for a British slam champion."

6. Sweet 16

Californian schoolgirl Tracy Austin was a tennis prodigy like no other. She was on the cover of World Tennis aged four and on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 13. She got to the US Open quarter-finals a year a later, and by 1979 she had reached the US Open final as a 16-year-old. 

Awaiting Austin in the final was the formidable Chris Evert, the champion in each of the four previous years. Evert, then 24, came into the final on the back of a 31-match winning streak at the US Open, and had won 52 of her last 53 sets at the tournament.

Wearing a pink tennis dress and sporting pigtails, Austin looked even more youthful than 16 and no-one was giving her much of a chance in the final. Even Robert Landsdorp, her coach, rated her only "about a 40%" possibility of winning, and rashly promised Tracy that he'd give up smoking if she won. As it turned out, this was one of the few things Austin recalled in the hazy immediate aftermath of the final. 

One crumb of comfort for Austin to draw on was the fact that she had beaten Evert already that year - ending the world No 1's 125-match winning streak on clay with a three-set win at the Italian Open in May. She also went into the US Open final buoyed by a straight-sets win against the No 2 seed Martina Navratilova in the semi-final a couple of days earlier. 

The final itself was not a classic, with both players employing safety-first tactics. Austin though managed to do the impossible and be even more durable and obstinate in defence than Evert, who had written the book on how to keep making your opponent hit one more ball. "I wound up losing points that I thought I had won," Evert said later. "I think six months ago she wouldn't have gotten to a lot of those shots."

Austin eventually prevailed 6-4, 6-3 to become the youngest ever grand slam winner. Monica Seles and Martina Hingis have since broken that record, but Austin remains the youngest ever US Open champion. 

Such was Austin's precociousness that the victory was not seen as that remarkable at the time, and many more grand slams were forecasted for the 16-year-old. As it turned out, Austin's career turned out to be fleetingly short, which has given her 1979 Flushing Flushing Meadows triumph added poignancy. 

She won the US Open again two years later having become the world No 1 in 1980, but after that she was bedevilled by a back injury that finished her as a top player by the time she was 21. 

5. The long goodbye

After 20 years of professional tennis and with his creaking body on the verge of collapse, Andre Agassi finally bade farewell to the sport at the 2006 US Open. In a career that had seen the highs of eight grand slam titles and the lows of plunging to No 141 in the world and taking crystal meth, there had been one constant: adoration from the Flushing Meadows crowd. 

Even when his career was on the point of collapse Agassi never missed the US Open, and he finished his career having played in the tournament on 21 consecutive occasions. 

By 2006 though Agassi, aged 36, was really in no fit state to be competing anymore. He later detailed the extent of the physical pain he was feeling in his autobiography Open in which he said that he felt as if he was 96 years old. At the time Agassi said his discomfort was "like there's a knife in you".  

Had this been any other tournament other than the last of his career, Agassi would almost certainly have withdrawn. Even his father, Mike, suggested that his son should pull out as playing could risk long-term damage. 

But Agassi, the great showman from Nevada, refused to countenance the idea of giving in to the agony that made him feel like a nonagenarian, even if it meant taking painkillers to get onto the court.

After a thrilling five-set win against Marcos Bagdahtis in the second round, Agassi entered the Arthur Ashe Stadium one final time to face Germany's Benjamin Becker. 

Agassi was clearly in a huge amount of discomfort, and despite giving everything, he eventually succumbed to a 7-5, 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 defeat. The American then broke down in tears as he was given a four-minute standing ovation by the emotional crowd. 

Agassi, scratching his nose and wiping tears from his eyes, took the CBS microphone to say:

Liz Clarke wrote in The Washington Post: "While there have been careers that ended with more glory, few have ended with greater love."

4. The comeback queen

There can't have been many more heartwarming stories in tennis history than Kim Clijsters' US Open title win in 2009. 

The always-popular Clijsters had not played at Flushing Meadows since 2005 and a luckless run of injuries forced her to retire from tennis two years later. But after getting married and giving birth to a daughter Jada, Clijsters returned to the WTA Tour in August 2009.

After playing a couple of smaller tournaments, Clijsters was given a wild card to the US Open whereupon she beat the world No 3 Venus Williams in the quarters, followed by the No 2 Serena Williams in the semis to miraculously reach the final.

The Belgian was not done there, and she defeated Caroline Wozniacki 7-5, 6-3 in the final to become the first mother to win a major since Evonne Goolagong at Wimbledon in 1980.

A disbelieving Clijsters was joined on court by her 18-month old daughter, and the two posed for pictures that would become etched in the minds of tennis watchers around the world. 

"We had planned Jada's nap time for later than usual so that she could be here tonight," Clijsters said after the win, as her domestic and professional life beautifully blurred into one. 

"I can’t believe this has happened, it’s still so surreal," Clijsters continued. "It’s a great feeling to have, but it’s confusing in a lot of ways that it happened so quickly...It was not really our plan. I just wanted to get back into the rhythm of playing tennis."

3. Serena slammed

Every so often there are moments in sport that had previously been genuinely unthinkable. Serena Williams's semi-final defeat to Roberta Vinci at the 2015 US Open was one such occasion. 

Williams had won all four of the previous majors, giving her the so-called 'Serena Slam' for the second time in her career. But what was at stake in New York three years ago was the calendar Grand Slam - all four majors in the same season and tennis's holy grail.

In the Open Era no-one other than the great Rod Laver and Steffi Graf had managed it, but here was Serena just two matches from immortality and with only the unseeded 32-year-old Roberta Vinci standing between her and the final. Once there - as she surely would be - Williams would face another unfancied Italian, 26th seed Flavia Pennetta.

Anticipation for Williams' coronation had meant the women's final had sold out far quicker than the men's, and now all the New York punters needed was confirmation that the American, who had not lost at Flushing Meadows since 2011, was going to be in it.  

The semi-final against Vinci started straightforwardly enough, with Williams comfortably taking the first set 6-2 in just over half an hour.

Thereafter things took a strange turn. Williams appeared to be choked by the magnitude of what she was attempting to achieve, and was suddenly looking leaden footed as her opponent started to relish playing the villain. Midway through the second set, Vinci hit a delicate drop-volley and gesticulated wildly at the crowd as if to say "I’m here too! What about me?"

The Italian's game is a beguiling mix of spins and clever angles, and it was starting to drive Williams to distraction. Vinci took the second set, and suddenly we were into a decider. What had appeared to be a formality now had the spectators shuffling in their seats uncomfortably. Williams couldn't lose this, could she? 

The first six games of the third set went with serve, but then at 3-3 the unthinkable happened. Vinci, playing with the vim and vigour of a 20-year-old, went on the offensive and forced a break point with a sensational volley that she again celebrated in a manner of Cristiano Ronaldo scoring for Real Madrid against Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Moments later the Italian broke the Williams serve, and then incredibly, she served out the match to complete a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win. 

The dream was over - Serena had lost. A devastated Williams insisted afterwards that she had not been burdened by the weight of expectation. "I told you guys that I don’t feel pressure," she said. "Does anyone have any other questions?"

Shellshocked viewers simply shook their heads at what happened, while supporters came to terms with the fact that they had parted with thousands of dollars to watch a Pennetta vs Vinci final. 

2. Eighteen minutes of chaos

A knowing grin must have spread over the US Open organisers' faces when they saw the draw for the 1979 second round. There jumping out at them was a surefire box-office smash hit between Ilie 'Nasty' Nastase, who at 34 was tennis's agent provocateur in-chief, and the 20-year-old New Yorker John McEnroe, an angst-ridden firebrand already well acquainted with the dark arts of the sport. 

To give the match maximum exposure and create as feisty an atmosphere as possible, it was scheduled for 9pm local time where it would be enjoyed by the rowdy evening crowd. One supporter amongst the 10,000 packed in to the Louis Armstrong Stadium, unfurled a banner that read: "This tennis match has been rated 'R'"

What ensued was probably the most chaotic match seen before or since at a grand slam. Nastase, known for his provocative antics and highly volatile temper, lost the plot in the third set and after a controversial ruling went against him he pretended to go to sleep on the baseline, using his racket as a pillow. 

The Telegraph's former Chief Sports Columnist Robert Philip wrote in 2002 that the match was his favourite memory of the tournament, and he takes up the story. 

With tournament referee Mike Blanchard futilely trying to persuade Nastase to resume the contest, Hammond intoned: "Default Mr Nastase - game, set and match, McEnroe."

Cue appearance of Blanchard's boss, tournament director Bill Trabert, on a mission to prevent a riot. Trabert reinstated Nastase, ordered Hammond out of the chair, and McEnroe went on to win in four sets with Blanchard officiating amidst a ring of cops. 

A Los Angeles Times blog described what had happened as "18 minutes of chaos", while Talbert told The New York Times: "In 48 years of tennis I've never seen anything like it. In the box seats two men were fighting, and their wives were fighting."

1. Rolling back the years

Jimmy Connors' 21st and penultimate US Open in 1991 was undoubtedly his most dramatic. As he approached his fifth decade, the five-time winner Connors was ranked a lowly 174 after missing most of the previous year with a wrist injury.

A divisive figure throughout his career due to his brashness and freequent on-court outbursts, Connors was always popular with the more raucous New York crowd, and he said going into the tournament that the US Open was: "My stage and the crowd my people. If I can win a match or two I know the crowd will do the rest for me." Connors' prediction proved to be prophetic as the Flushing Meadows supporters roared him to the semi-final. 

The soap opera-like run to the last four began with a riotous five-set win over Patrick McEnroe in the first round.  Connors trailed by two sets to love and was down 0-3 and 0-40 on his own serve, before rallying and somehow winning an unforgettable night match 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 at 1:35 a.m local time.

"I’m two sets down, 0-3, 0-40," Connors wrote in his autobiography, The Outsider, "F--- this, I’m not letting Patrick McEnroe beat me in my own backyard. I’m not ready to say goodbye."

After comfortable wins over Michiel Schapers and Karel Novacek, Connors defeated Aaron Krickstein on his 39th birthday to reach the quarter-final. The Krickstein match showcased the best and worst of Connors. There was the comeback from 5-2 in the deciding set to win 3-6, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 counterbalanced with the tirades against the umpire David Littlefield.

Connors told Littlefield to: "Get out of the chair. Get your ass out of the chair! You're a bum! I'm out here playing my butt off at 39 years old and you're doing that?".

Then in the fifth set Connors screamed at the umpire: "You are an abortion! Do you know that? ... Get the f***out of there!".

In any case, Connors was providing theatre to rival anything that was being put on at Broadway 10 miles to the west. "They’re demanding more drama," Connors said after beating Krickstein, "and I’m going to give it to them. This is what they paid for. This is what they want."  

The quarter-final proved to be a fitting second act, as Connors battled back from a set and a break down to win 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 against the Dutchman Paul Haarhuis. 

The match is best remembered for an extraordinary point in which Connors hoisted up four consecutive lobs to somehow keep his opponent - a highly accomplished volleyer - at bay and ultimately win the point.

The semi-final was a bit of a damp squib as Connors was beaten in the straight sets by the American rising star Jim Courier, but the events of the previous fortnight would never be forgotten.