Delgado leads British novices into limelight

Whatever befalls them in the second round, four British wild cards, Jamie Delgado, Barry Cowan, Martin Lee and Arvind Parmar, will have a tale to tell their grandchildren about Wimbledon 2001, opening with the line: "The day I played..." For Delgado, ranked No 182 in the world, it will be the day he played Andre Agassi; for Cowan, ranked No 265, the day he played Pete Sampras; for Lee, ranked No 130, the day he played Tim Henman; and for Parmar, ranked No 197, the day he played Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

The grass may always seem greener on the other side of the net, but these four toilers from the foothills of the professional game will at least sample what it is like to trade shots with players whose status and lifestyle is almost beyond imagination.

No one has toiled longer than Parmar so far this week; nor has anybody looked more in need of stretcher bearers before their moment of triumph. Parmar, staggering about the court, saved a match point before defeating Andre Sa 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 4-6, 8-6 after four hours and 12 minutes. Sa is from Belo Horizonte, though the location would have suited Parmar better.

Cowan, a 26-year-old from Southport, is due to face Sampras, the seven-times Wimbledon champion, on No 1 Court this afternoon, having eliminated Cheshire's Mark Hilton on Monday. Lee, a 23-year-old left-hander from Worthing, is scheduled on the Centre Court against his compatriot Henman, the sixth seed.

Delgado, a 24-year-old from Birmingham whose junior career promised more than he has been able to deliver, won the right to challenge Agassi tomorrow by defeating the Ukrainian Andrei Medvedev yesterday, 6-2, 6-4, 7-5.

Medvedev, 26, has not had the best of times since losing to Jonas Bjorkman in the first round here a year ago. Shortly afterwards, torn ankle ligaments ended his season. His best result in 2001 came in Dubai in February, when he defeated Pat Rafter en route to the quarter-finals.

Delgado, having beaten Jeff Tarango, Medvedev's current coach, in the first round at Nottingham last week, was primed to extend his client's losing streak to five matches.

He won he opening set in 25 minutes, breaking for 2-1 with a splendid cross-court backhand (after which Medvedev donned a cap against the dazzle of the sun) and cracking the Ukrainian's serve to love for 5-2.

In the second set, Delgado came under pressure on his serve before making the decisive break for 5-4, and he was resilient enough to save three break points at 2-3 in the third set, breaking Medvedev for 6-5 on his fourth break point.

Although Delgado tightened in the concluding game, offering Medvedev a chance to break at 30-40, the Briton prevailed with three impressive winners: a volley, a service winner and an ace to finish after an hour and 40 minutes.

"I have to give credit to Jamie," Medvedev said. "I think I played a decent grass-court match – for sure not my finest – and he saved all the break points in the second and third sets. Hats off to him." Medvedev, it may be remembered, came close to defeating Agassi in the final of the French Open in 1999, when the Las Vegan became only the fifth man in the history of the game to complete a set of the four Grand Slam singles titles.

How did he rate Delgado's prospects of causing an upset against Agassi tomorrow? "Well, he has to win the match point, for sure," Medvedev said.

"The way he gets to it is going to be very difficult. Jamie will have to play a little better than he played today – in fact, he will have to play a lot better than he played today. Everything will have to come his way." Underlining his point, Medvedev went on: "You've seen Agassi play. He's probably the best tennis player in the world. Him and Sampras, they both share it. To beat them, you have to play better than the best tennis player in the world. There is no way they will play a bad match at Wimbledon, or not try. Probably if they have two broken legs, they will still go on the court and fight."

Agassi, who took care of business impressively against the Dutchman Peter Wessels, winning his opening match, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4, watched part of the Delgado-Medvedev match. "He's obviously playing pretty well to have such a convincing win," Agassi said. "He's definitely not going to pose the threat in the same way that my opponent did today. I'll have a chance to really work myself into my game from the baseline. I'll have to take it to him."

Asked about the rare atmosphere he can expect, playing a Brit, Agassi replied: "I'm looking forward to it. I never played a Brit here in Wimbledon."

Delgado said he was looking forward to "a great opportunity to see how my game is against his – I've never played anyone as good as that; he's maybe one of the all-time greats of the game." Your correspondent reminded Delgado how Bill Clinton's arrival at the French Open unsettled Agassi, who could hardly do anything right after taking the opening set against the home favourite, Sebastien Grosjean.

Could he think of anybody we could invite tomorrow? "I don't think Tony Blair has the same impact," Delgado said, smiling. "Give it a go, by all means."

Vladimir Voltchkov, of Belarus, who reached the semi-finals last year, lost his first match this time to the Russian Mikhail Youzhny. Voltchkov, the 16th seed, was beaten 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5. Illness accounted for two other seeded players. Wayne Ferreira retired with respiratory problems as a result of hay fever, and Tommy Haas was struck by a gastric condition.

Yesterday at Wimbledon

British wild card Jamie Delgado secures second-round match with No 2 seed Andre Agassi

Arvind Parmar survives cramp and a four-hour marathon to book meeting with Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Jelena Dokic warms to grass as her father's court-side pipe smoking brings fresh brush with authority