Men's final: Agassi brings out the brilliance in fellow American during a thrilling climax to the championships

AFTER ALL the recent arguments surrounding equal prize money for male and female players at Wimbledon, Lindsay Davenport yesterday managed to leave with more earnings than the men's singles champion, Pete Sampras.

THE IDEA of a nation so transfixed by Tim Henman's semi-final date with Pete Sampras at Wimbledon on Saturday that even regular racegoers would be consumed by interest in the English hero's effort was soon laid to rest at Sandown Park.

RADIO 4 fans who tuned in yesterday morning to listen to short readings on the subject of tennis, were in for a shock.

Wimbledon 99: British No 1 survives marathon to triumph over Courier but Philippoussis denies home double

Britain's No 1 lines up Davis Cup nemesis while Rusedski breezes through

JIM COURIER, the 28-year-old bane of British tennis, secured a fourth-round meeting with Tim Henman yesterday by recovering from a match point down in the fourth set against Sjeng Schalken, of the Netherlands, to win a 67-match thriller, 7-6, 3-6, 3-6, 7-5, 13-11. He was later taken to hospital suffering from dehydration.

AS HE was about to serve at match point yesterday Richard Krajicek, the 1996 Wimbledon champion, heard an aeroplane overhead and backed off. He was probably afraid he might hit it with the rim of his racket.

How Novotna's pay upstaged Sampras

RATHER LIKE those signs you see on shop doors when people have just popped out for a minute, Pete Sampras is happy to be displaying the notice "Back at One". No disrespect to other fine competitors like Carlos Moya and Yevgeny Kafelnikov, but their brief sojourns at number one this year had Mr and Mrs Joe Public scratching their heads and wondering where exactly Pete had gone.

TIM HENMAN and Greg Rusedski embark this week on a two-man mission to revive the corpse of the country's sporting summer. Both will take part in the Stella Artois Championships, which began yesterday at the Queen's Club, in south London, and with Wimbledon less than a fortnight away the pressure will be on to do something that the nation's footballers and cricketers have failed to do in recent weeks - justify their place among the world's elite.

PAT RAFTER'S sprinted to his third straight victory over Pete Sampras as Australia reached the World Team Cup final by winning both singles matches against the United States yesterday.

TIM HENMAN'S bid to prove he can get to grips with clay suffered a setback yesterday as the Spaniard Francisco Clavet beat him 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the Barcelona Open.

MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS gave Carlos Moya little time to celebrate his world No 1ranking, beating the fourth-seeded Spaniard in five sets yesterday in the Champions Cup final at Indian Wells, California.