Cowan rescues British pride

Cowan took Pete Sampras to five sets last year

Barry Cowan was one of only two British winners as Wimbledon got under way on Monday.

Day one results from Wimbledon

The big-serving left-hander beat Hungarian Attila Savolt 6-7 (3/7) 6-3 6-3 6-3 to join Greg Rusedski in the second round.

"I hardly dropped a point on my serve until the tie-break and then I hung in and really upped it when it mattered," said Cowan.

British number two Rusedski, the 23rd seed, was a comfortable 6-1 6-4 7-5 winner against Austria's Jurgen Melzer.

Julie Pullin's dismal Wimbledon run continued

Jamie Delgado was on the verge of joining them against Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti.

But after fighting back from a two-set deficit he spurned four match points and lost 6-3 6-2 6-7 (6/8) 4-6 7-5.

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Martin Lee had the hardest draw off all the Britons on Monday and he lost 6-3 7-6 (7/1) 6-3 to seven-time champion Pete Sampras.

Arvind Parmar also lost in straight sets, going down 6-1 6-4 6-4 to number 14 seed Thomas Enqvist from Sweden.

Julie Pullin's appalling Wimbledon run continued as she lost her seventh match in seven attempts.

Pullin took the first set on the tie-break against Slovenia's Maja Matevzic but quickly subsided to a 6-7 (4/7) 6-1 6-4 defeat.

The other British woman in action on the first day of the tournament, Lucie Ahl, won only four games against 13th seed Meghann Shaughnessy.

Injury heartbreak

At least they made it on to court.

British men's number eight James Auckland was forced to pull out less than an hour before his match against Switzerland's George Bastl was due to start because of a broken bone in his foot.

"It is heartbreaking, I'm absolutely devastated," said Auckland.

"I've made a lot of personal and financial sacrifices over the last year to improve my ranking and to have this snatched away at the last minute is very cruel."