Tennis: Wimbledon '94 / Becker accused of cheating by Medvedev: The three-times Wimbledon champion courts more controversy as he fights his way towards his seventh final. Guy Hodgson reports

BORIS BECKER is through to the last eight at Wimbledon but his progress is being marked by an escalating series of accusations. He must dread opening his cupboard in the All England Club dressing-room at the moment for fear an avalanche of skeletons might tumble down on him.

Fresh from being fined dollars 1,000 ( pounds 625) for contravening the toilet- break rules in the third round, the German lurched into another controversy yesterday when Andrei Medvedev accused him of gamesmanship.

John McEnroe, the former champion, has already said that Becker should have been thrown out of the tournament for receiving off-court treatment during a toilet break in his match against Javier Frana and yesterday Medvedev was upset by his opponent's delaying tactics. Twice the Ukrainian was held up as he was about to serve - the second time when he was 40-0 down in the decisive game of the match - and it obviously upset him.

Medvedev, who did not wait for Becker when he left the court, said: 'It's not the right thing to do, especially at his level. If you are good enough you should win without cheating. That's what I say.

'I don't think it's gentleman- like. He steps in to return, he looks in your eyes and then, just before you make a serve, he steps back and then goes through the routine again. It really disturbs any player.'

It was a sour end to a match that lasted nearly five hours and at times touched the sweetest heights. Resuming at 1-1 in the fifth set yesterday, the contest had been simplified to a shoot-out. Both players could see the prize but had to reach for it knowing that there might not be time to regain lost ground in the event of a slip.

In the cock-pit atmosphere of Court One where the public can almost reach out and touch the players, the match took on a gladitorial atmosphere. It was sport with a brutal veneer, a contest pruned to its basics.

It was also tennis on a knife edge but the theory that the first wound might prove fatal was wrong. Medvedev broke Becker in the first game yesterday and at 4-3, a break and 30-0 down, even Becker assumed he was about to be beaten. 'I thought the end is not far,' he said. But instead of continuing to go for the jugular, the Ukrainian ninth seed withheld the final blow. 'He didn't attack it right,' Becker said. 'He stood back. He let me come at him and on grass that's a mistake when it's crunch time.'

Reprieved, Becker broke back to make the score 4-4 and, with his serve improving as the set progressed, he was able to switch from defence to offence. In the 12th game a series of blistering passing shots gave him a 40-0 lead and, after squandering one match point he sealed it with a backhand volley.

The match had lasted 4hr 51min but yesterday's conclusion, made necessary by their being brought off court for bad light on Monday evening, lasted only 42 minutes. The score was 6-7, 7-5, 7-6, 6-7, 7-5 but, like a penalty shoot-out in the World Cup, it was only the finale that mattered. 'It was always close,' Becker said. 'I knew and I think he knew that it was going to come down to one or two points.'

Regrettably for him, it came down to one point in the interview room afterwards. Becker wanted to talk about his match but the issue of the toilet break in the Frana match would not go away. 'The matter is over,' he said. 'I got fined and that's it. I was battling a guy for five hours just now and I expected to be questioned about that match. If you don't have any questions you can leave the room if you like.

'I don't think I did anything wrong and I don't think I was cheating anybody. People have accused me of all different kinds of things over the past 10 years. Some had grounds, and some didn't'

Becker, the seventh seed, will now meet Denmark's Christian Bergstrom, ranked 112th in the world, with the scent of his seventh final in his nostrils. 'In the back of mind I always feel I have a chance at Wimbledon,' he said.

The odour of controversy is also with him, and at this rate he could win his fourth men's singles title on Sunday while losing a record number of friends.

(Photograph omitted)