Tennis / Wimbledon '94: Delgado falls

THERE was a British player in action yesterday, but a week of against-the-odds success came to an abrupt end for Jamie Delgado, who had reached the semi- finals of the boys' singles competition. Delgado had already knocked out two seeds, but was helpless to the superior strength of Mark Philippoussis, the Australian third seed.

The unseeded Delgado, a 17- year-old from Buckinghamshire, had shown considerable character earlier in the competition, coming back to win from a set down in three of his four matches. Yesterday, however, there was no glimmer of recovery and after just 61 minutes, Delgado had lost 6-3, 6-1.

Delgado matched Philippoussis up to 3-3 in the first set but thereafter he won only one game. 'I may have played a bit better in my other matches, but only because the people I played against allowed me to,' Delgado said after the match.

Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge yesterday completed a successful defence of their men's doubles title, brushing aside Grant Connell and Patrick Galbraith in straight sets in the final for the second year running. The Australian winners went down a break in the first set, but the quality of their return of serves rescued them, and from 2-3 down in the second set, a run of seven successful games on the trot set them up for victory.