I used the word epic to describe Arvind Parmar's performance on Tuesday so I'm running out of words when it comes to describe Barry Cowan's efforts against Pete Sampras on court one.

I thought we were in for a very quick match and I'm sure Sampras thought the same.

He was coasting it as he took the first two sets, but he took his foot off the pedal and the next minute he found himself in dire problems.

But as much as that, the change in fortunes was due to Barry really going for it.

Barry was playing five levels above himself.

I said to John Barrett in commentary that all the pressure would be back on Sampras if it went into a fifth set, and that if Barry won it would be the biggest shock in men's championship history.

We were talking about a guy here who had never won at Wimbledon before this week, who has only been playing in challenger tournaments and was two sets down to the seven-time champion.

But it wasn't to be and, without wishing to cast a downward note, let's hope this is not another in a history of one-off British performances that we have seen on grass.

He will have taken an unbelievable amount of confidence from this but he now has to work on getting his ranking down.

He has grown up today with that performance - now he must build on it.

His efforts hardly leave us room to mention Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman.

Greg has a great record against Byron Black but will take great confidence from his win and he made short work of it.

Tim eased past Martin Lee comfortably, who unlike Cowan slipped back into his shell on the biggest stage.