Metro (UK)

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HIS coming weekend marks a year since these shores hosted one of its most remarkable sporting days. An afternoon that gripped not just the nation but the world.

A day that had us transfixed by two events a shade over ten miles apart; one in the affluent suburbs of south-west London, the other in equally prosperous surroundin­gs a little further to the north.

Wimbledon was preparing to host the 2019 men’s singles final while Lord’s was gearing up for the Cricket World Cup final. In SW19 Novak Djokovic faced familiar foe Roger Federer and in NW8 tournament hosts England would be taking on New Zealand.

When fans awoke that somewhat dreary Sunday morning, few would have envisaged quite how momentous this competitiv­e feast would turn out to be. A sporting buffet so rich and bountiful the BBC has made a documentar­y about it entitled One Day: Sport’s Super Sunday (Sun, BBC2, 8.30pm), which not only helps us to relive that afternoon and early evening of last summer but expertly pieces together a timeline of a day’s events that will live long in the memory. At Lord’s, England were looking for their first 50-over global success while at Wimbledon Federer was chasing his ninth men’s singles title, Djokovic a fifth. Boosted by the tales of those involved, One Day skilfully takes us back and forth from the home of cricket to the home of tennis as the drama unfolds – and both events delivered that in spades.

Djokovic (top left) was to overcome the wishes of a Federerfri­endly crowd – ‘When they shout “Roger” I hear “Novak”’ – to win the longest singles final in history, an epic final set, a 12-12 stonker, going to a newly introduced tie-break in which he triumphed 7-3.

By the time the Serb lifted that iconic pineapple-topped trophy and tucked into a few blades of Centre Court turf, at Lord’s England had a new cricketing hero. The batwieldin­g efforts of tattooed titan Ben Stokes (bottom left) guided the nation to victory in some of the most amazing scenes witnessed in any sporting arena and introduced many England fans to new words such as ‘Super Over’ and ‘win’.

Sunday, July 14, 2019 was one extraordin­ary sporting day. It is worth taking the time to relive it.

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