THE curtain was brought down on one of the great Wimbledon careers here at the All England Club yesterday when Boris Becker confirmed he would not be returning to the championships after he had been beaten in four sets by Pete Sampras in a disappointing quarter-final match.

"That's my last time at Wimbledon, definitely," announced the 29-year- old last night. "I think it's a good time now, it's the end of the road and I feel I am going out with my head held high," he said.

The announcement came after a match in which the three times champion had fallen well short of producing his best form, he looked tired and was outplayed by the American.

The German was broken twice during the first set, during which he managed to get scarcely more than a quarter of his first serves in while his traditionally ferocious return rarely materialised.

Sampras lost a second tie break to five points but was threatened on his service only a handful of times and never actually lost it in just over two hours on court. In fact, Sampras had never been broken in either of his previous centre court meetings with Becker.

"He serves so well now," Becker concluded "that he can just afford to relax when receiving and wait for the cracks to appear. He is a great player, though, and the fact that it was him, that I could play out there on centre court, I took all of these things as, signs that this was the time to go.

Sampras said that he was honoured that he had been involved in his opponent's last game at this venue. "Wimbledon and Boris just go together, he had it all, finesse, guts and power and I know everybody will be sorry to see him go." In the end, already 6-1, 6-7, 6-1, 5-4 down and facing two match points the Becker era was ended when the German attempted to pass Sampras as the top seed followed a second serve in towards the net. The shot was long and, as he left the court, it seemed clear to look at the former champion that he was taking one long, last look around the scene of so many of his career's greatest moments.

By that stage Becker's young protege, Nicolas Kiefer was long since showered and rested after suffering a 7-6, 2-6, 6-0, 6-4 defeat at the hands of Australia's Todd Woodbridge. Once again the 19 year-old showed plenty of promise but he still lacks a little of the strength that should bring consistency. The teenager actually led by a break for most of the fourth set but it was the world number 37, who beat Sampras in the first round on the American's first visit to these championships, who finished the set more strongly, producing two breaks in three games to wrap up his place in the semi-finals.

If it was a bad day for the Germans in the one half of the draw then they at least had another former champion, Michael Stich, in the other helping to ensure that it was an even worse one for the local boys. Dangerously, there had been talk of an all British semi-final, a first British finalist since before the last war and even a first British champion since around about the time of the Crimea. Inevitably such fanciful speculation prompted Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski to make their excuses and depart this year's championship before people really started to get carried away.

Stich described his win over Henman as a brilliant tactical performance" earning a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 victory and a place in only his second Wimbledon semi-final.

Stich has already announced his intention to retire from the circuit towards the end of this season and following this match the man who lifted the title in 1991 made it abundantly clear that winning here is the sort of high he wants to go out on.

In this match it was difficult to tell whether he is playing well enough to live up to his ambition.

Henman, having been repeatedly inspired to spectacular heroics in his earlier matches, finally played badly hitting a lot of double faults and showing an increasing reluctance to attack the net.

The Englishman described the experience as the worst he had endured on a tennis court while Rusedski, who had simply run out of steam in his match against Cedric Pioline declared himself to be happy with what he has achieved over the past week and a half.