British rookie Barry Cowan almost pulled off one of Wimbledon's greatest ever scalps when he took No.1 seed Pete Sampras to five sets on court one today.

The writing looked to be on the wall as Sampras surged into a two-set lead but Cowan, playing in the second round for the first time, fought back to claim the third set, 7-6 after a tie break.

Sampras, aiming for his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title was clearly dumbstruck as Cowan sealed the fourth set at 6-4.

At two sets each, the crowd sensed a major upset may be on the cards but the world number five held his nerve to clinch an exraordinary encounter, winning 6-3 in the fifth and final set.

Greg Rusedski booked his place in the third round after a straight sets victory over Zimbabwe's Byron Black.

The British No.2 made a blistering start, breaking his opponent three times to claim the first set 6-1 in just over twenty minutes.

Rusedski continued where he left off in the second to go two sets up (6-3) with just under an hour played.

And in the final set Rusedski wrapped things up, clocking serves of upto 135mph, to claim a 6-1 6-3 6-4 win over Zimbabwe's No1.

He'll now face a much harder challenge in the shape of Spanish eighth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero or '96 semi-finalist Jason Stoltenberg.

British No.1 Tim Henman made his way comfortably into the third round with a straight sets win over Martin Lee on centre court, 6-2 6-3 6-4.

Earlier in the day the last British woman crashed out when Karen Cross was ripped apart 6-0 6-1 by Lisa Raymond.

Cross, who returned for fun after retiring a few months ago, didn't have much to smile about as she was taken to the cleaners by last year's quarter-finalist.

Raymond, ranked 28th, tore through the first set in a whirlwind 18 minutes before repeating the feat in the second.

US fifth seed Serena Williams thundered into the third round after cruising past unseeded German Barbara Rittner 6-4 6-0 and fellow American Jennifer Capriati made easy work of her second round match with Italy's Schiavone, winning in straight sets, 6-3 6-1.

Unseeded Lilian Osterloh caused one of the upsets of the day, knocking out 13th seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, 7-6 7-5.

Goran Ivanisevic progressed to the next round following his victory over 21st seed and former world No.1 Carlos Moya of Spain. Despite falling behind 6-7 in the first set, the Croatian fought back 6-3 6-4 6-4 for a place in the third round.

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