Pete Sampras was given the fright of his life by Britain's Barry Cowan, but the American held his nerve to take a five set thriller on Court One at Wimbledon this evening. The Liverpool lad recovered from two sets down to force a final set decider with the defending champion, who also entered the match on a 29 game winning streak at the All England club.
The British number six, ranked a lowly 265th in the world, looked destined for a tame exit as the number one seed claimed the first two sets 6-3 and 6-2, but the 26-year-old forced his way back into the match with a dramatic tiebreak victory in the third. The confidence gained from that spurred him onto a higher level in the penultimate set, which he took 6-4 to leave the boisterous home crowd anticipating a memorable scalp.
However, the fairy tale climax failed to materialise as Sampras broke serve twice to establish a 4-0 advantage. Despite breaking the American again, Sampras held on to claim victory 6-3 6-2 6-7 4-6 6-3, serving out to love with an ace for one of his hardest-fought victories ever.
Earlier, Greg Rusedski produced an inspired afternoon of tennis to fire himself into the third round with a convincing three set victory over Zimbabwe's Byron Black. The British number two eased through this second round tie with little difficulty after taking the first set 6-1, and following up with 6-3 and 6-4 scorelines to take the win.
Rusedski has been in excellent form since restructuring his game and has already claimed victories over world number one Gustavo Kuerten, Andre Agassi and Marat Safin in the build up to Wimbledon. Rusedski's groundstrokes and placement were as solid as his famed serve on court two. He fired down 13 aces at Black, a quarter-finalist last year at Wimbledon but utterly frustrated this time by Rusedski's big guns.
Rusedski dropped just four points on his serve in the first set, while his famous serve paved the way for victories in the second and third sets. The Briton now faces Spain's claycourt specialist Juan Carlos Ferrero who beat Australia's 1996 Wimbledon semi-finalist Jason Stoltenberg 7-6 4-6 6-3 6-7 6-3, with a place in the semis now looking a distinct possibility when possible opponents are taken into consideration.
Meanwhile, American teenager Andy Roddick thrilled the Centre Court crowd with a convincing four set victory over Thomas Johansson of Sweden, who has been in good form coming into the tournament. The 18-year-old was highly impressive en route to a 7-6 6-1 4-6 7-6 win, mixing a powerful game with some elegant forehands and a devastating serve. He will now face fellow big-server Goran Ivanisevic, who beat Spain's Carlos Moya 6-7 6-3 6-4 6-4 this afternoon.
Marat Safin came through his tricky tie with Daniel Nestor when the Canadian pulled up with injury in the third set. The Russian, seeded fourth, was trailing 2-1 in the final set when Nestor suffered an injury to his left ankle and was forced to quit. Safin had edged through the first set on a tie-break but lost the second 6-3 and was facing a real test of his grass-court credentials before the match came to a premature end.
Filed by Shane Murray
