By MARK EDWARDS

in Birmingham BRITAIN'S hopes of pulling off a famous victory over the United States in the Davis Cup disappeared last night by the narrowest of margins in front of a carnival atmosphere in Birmingham.

Needing to win both remaining matches, Britain were given the perfect start when Oxfordshire's Tim Henman defeated Todd Martin in four, nerve-jangling sets with one of the best performances of his career, only to see his hard-work slip away with Greg Rusedski just failing to complete the fightback, with an 8-6 final set reverse to Jim Courier.

The 9,400 crowd created an atmosphere most people had never experienced before, similar to that of Euro '96, with their vocal support and patriotic flag-waving, urged their side to victory.

Having lost the first set 6-4, and a break down at 4-3, things did not look too promising for Henman, but he dug in and broke Martin twice, producing some scintillating tennis to take the set 7-5.

Henman took the third set 6-3 and after falling a break behind in the fourth, produced some outrageous forehand winners to take the match 7-4 in the tiebreak. The noise was deafening, and as Henman left the court, everywhere was buzzing with anticipation of a remarkable British win.

But the noise soon died as Rusedski, despite serving three aces, lost his opening service game and Courier, playing some top-class tennis, went on to take the opening set 6-4.

Rusedski won the second in a tiebreak, only for Courier to take control and go two-sets-to-one ahead.

The fourth went in a flash as Rusedski raced into a 5-0 lead, and held out for a 6-1 success and with both players visibly tiring, it was always going to be the one who could keep his nerve.

That turned out to be Courier.

Story date: Monday 05 April

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.