Silver for Britain in tennis

Student Games

Great Britain yesterday won their best medal so far at the World here. Unfortunately for Nick Adams and Richard Holden it was silver and not gold, as the pair lost 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the final of the men's doubles tennis competition to the highly regarded No 4 seeds from the United States, David Caldwell and Paul Goldstein.

In the end, the duo from the United States proved too strong after the two Britons had gone a set and a break up, thanks to some excellent serving from Holden and a number of high-class service returns from Adams.

The improvement in Goldstein's serve as the match progressed was a crucial factor. The decisive game was undoubtedly the fifth one of the third set. Having lost Adams' service for 0-2, the British pair needed to break back immediately. They had five chances to do so in a marathon game of seven deuces but failed. The score went to 4-1 and the slide from that point was inevitable. "When that game was over the Americans breathed a sigh of relief, and we had an uphill battle," Adams said. The match lasted three minutes shy of two hours,

The prospect of a tennis gold medal is not yet beyond the British team. Paul Robinson and Sam Smith contest the mixed doubles final today against the top seeds, Chih-Jung Chen and Shi-Ting Wang of Taiwan.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 23