John Alexander won the Davis Cup the day before this in 1977.
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He won a 20-game fifth set in his Davis Cup tennis final match against Adriano Panatta at White City, Sydney before clinching the cup for Australia.
The 26-year-old, from Sydney, won that hour-long set 11-9 to earn high praise from Australia's captain Neale Fraser.
Fraser said Alexander was one of the greatest Davis Cup players.
The long match, which earned a standing ovation from the 7000-strong crowd, prevented the fifth match, the singles between Tony Roche and Corrado Barazzutti, being completed before dark.
That match gave promise of being another exciting marathon when it was abandoned at 12-12 in the first set, giving Australia the Davis Cup for the first time since 1973, with a margin of 3-1.
In cricket, Australia captain Bob Simpson scored 89 runs to rescue Australia from a difficult position and then steer it to a relatively safe one in the first Test against India at Brisbane.
He was supported by a patient innings from David Ogilvie and a sparkling one from Peter Toohey.
A 50-run last-wicket partnership between bowlers Jeff Thomson and Alan Hurst took Australia's lead to 340.
Play was extended past stumps in the World Series Cricket match between Australian and West Indies in Melbourne to enable a finish to be made yesterday, the third day of the scheduled five-day match.
The West Indians won the game by three wickets, an unbeaten 45-run eighth-wicket partnership between Andy Roberts and Derryk Murray preventing the Australians winning.
Another Australian team lost its match, in Rockhampton, to a World XI.