The crowd provided the supporting act

That all changed as he dramatically took the third set on a tie-break.

All around Wimbledon people were stopped in their tracks, glued to television sets, giant scoreboards and waiting on the words of others to find out how Cowan was faring.

The crowds on Wimbledon's hill had stayed on in the evening sunshine, although many did not anticipate delaying their journey for long.

Cowan had different ideas - he wanted to keep them there.

And he did, having the audacity to break the Sampras serve and take the match into a final set.

Sampras had had six previous meetings with Brits at Wimbledon, dropping just two sets in the process - Cowan had suddenly doubled that.

For a moment the scenes all around Wimbledon were more reminiscent of a football match than tennis.

More than a glass or two of Pimms was needed to steady the nerves at this point, if the budget would stretch to it.

But then Sampras awoke from his slumber, as if to question why everybody was getting so excited.

Having only been beaten by one man in eight years, (Richard Krajicek in 1996) Sampras took charge of the final set.

But Cowan wanted to earn every penny of his biggest ever pay day, a purse of �12,500, an amount that you could almost imagine dropping out of the pocket of Sampras as small change.

Barry Cowan's Wimbledon is over for another year, but while in other years he has exited as a loser, both he and British tennis could claim a victory in the light of this performance.