Delgado and Ebden help raise home spirits with defeat of Australian pair

Thirty-six-year-old Jamie Delgado – an All England Club veteran – teamed up with Australia’s Matthew Ebden in the men’s doubles and they enjoyed a fine success against Lleyton Hewitt and Matthew Knowles.

They took the minimum number of sets to get the job done, going through 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7/4).

That was the sole success of the day, though, as others fell by the wayside.

Tara Moore, who has family in Doncaster and was beaten after a bold performance in the singles on Tuesday, partnered Melanie South but they did not take a set off Silvia Soler-Espinosa and Carla Suarez Navarro.

Samantha Murray and Jade Windley took one off Flavia Pennetta and Andrea Petkovic but still lost. That was the story for Nicola Slater and Lisa Whybourn, too, who went close to seeing off Alize Cornet and Pauline Parmentier but lost 4-6 7-5 4-6.

When the skies opened, Jamie Murray and John Peers were still waiting to go on court, as was last year’s men’s doubles champion Jonny Marray, of Sheffield, who was paired with Heather Watson in the mixed.

Tickets to the highly-anticipated men’s final at Wimbledon are already priced at nearly £5,000.

Seats for the clash on Centre Court are said to be in particularly high demand this year after a string of top players fell out of the Championships, clearing the way for home hope Andy Murray.

Seller Viagogo said standard tickets were listed from £4,750 and demand was up 40 per cent since Wednesday.

Spokesman Steve Roest said: “(Roger) Federer and (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga’s shock exits sent Wimbledon tickets searches through the roof.

“As the heavy-hitters are knocked out and Murray’s path to the final clears, fans are eager to get a seat on Centre Court in the hope of witnessing British sporting history.”

Viagogo said it registered a 458 per cent increase in ticket searches overnight for the men’s competition and 291 per cent for the women’s second round.