Barry Cowan (born 24 August 1974, Southport, Merseyside) is a former British tennis player, best known for taking Pete Sampras to five sets at Wimbledon in 2001.
Cowan attended the LTA Rover School at Bisham Abbey. He is a former member of Aughton Tennis Club.
A left-hander, Cowan was a versatile sportsman in his junior years, aside from tennis, Barry represented the North of England at under-15 level hockey and is also a member of Ormskirk Golf Club. After success in junior tournaments, Cowan first competed at the All England Club in 1994 as a wild card, losing in the first round to that year's French Open champion Sergi Bruguera in four sets.
Cowan was only to appear regularly in Grand Slams as a Wimbledon wild card. However he was successful in qualifying for the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows in 2000, though he lost in straight sets to Jens Knippschild. Cowan later represented Britain at the Sydney Olympics taking the first set but eventually losing to Daniel Nestor in round one.
In 2001, Cowan once again gained a wild card entry into Wimbledon, and won his first ever SW19 singles match in a battle of Britain against Mark Hilton in straight sets, setting up a dream second round match against Sampras, undefeated at Wimbledon since 1996, the match was the epitome of a David & Goliath, with there being 264 places between the two in the World Rankings.
As expected Sampras dominated the first two sets on Court 1, leading 6–3, 6–2 before Cowan came back against all expectations, taking an epic third set tie break. During breaks in play, Cowan would listen to music, notably You'll Never Walk Alone, the inspiring song which can be heard at Anfield home of his team Liverpool FC. Before the match he had sought advice from a top sports psychologist to help prepare himself for the daunting task of facing the world number one.
The help seemed to pay off and with the partisan British crowd cheering Cowan on, Cowan upset the form book to break the Sampras serve to win the fourth set 6–4 and take it into a final set.
However, all dreams of an upset evaporated as Sampras broke back in the final set to win 6–3, 6–2, 6–7, 4–6, 6–3.