Wimbledon ace Liam Broady finds silver lining in defeat as Brit sets new goal

Highlights from day 4 at Wimbledon

Liam Broady claimed Friday was a “Debbie Downer” for British tennis after becoming the last home male to be knocked out of the Wimbledon singles, although he also touched on the positive side of his run at SW19, with the US Open now firmly in his sights. The Stockport star created the shock of the tournament when he beat French Open finalist Casper Ruud in five gruelling sets on Centre Court on Thursday.

But despite winning the first set against Canadian Denis Shapovalov and then serving for the third on Court 2, the No.26 seed fought back to win 4-6 6-2 7-5 7-5.

Broady, the only British male to reach the third round, followed Andy Murray and Cam Norrie out in a 90-minute nightmare. “I take no satisfaction in [making it the furthest],” he said.

“Kind of makes it worse that we’ve all lost on the same day, as well. Obviously I’d have preferred for us all to have won. Probably would have felt a bit better if we’d staggered what days we lost on, whereas now it’s a bit of a Debbie Downer, isn’t it? It’s a shame. For all three of those results to happen on the same day is pretty rough.”

Don’t miss… Broady follows Murray and Norrie with Wimbledon exit on crushing day for Brits

The Canadian started sluggishly and Broady won the first set before serving for the third set at 5-3 but Shapovalov won the next four games and made eight breaks of serve in all.

The 2021 Wimbledon semi-finalist said: “I am really happy to get the win. I was pretty lucky to sneak the third set there. I would have been in trouble if he had won that. Liam played a long match yesterday. I am exhausted so I can’t imagine how he is feeling right now.”

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British No.5 Broady said: “I think for me to compete with someone like Denis, I probably need to be at the tip-top of my game. Probably an hour into the match, your legs feel pretty heavy. So I was pretty glad that I won the first set because otherwise it might have been a straight-sets victory for him. But I understand how it works. I can’t really blame Mother Nature for raining on a day that took away my day off.”

Wilcard Broady has the consolation of banking £131,000 for equalling his best Grand Slam performance and he is up to world No.126 in the live tennis rankings as he seeks to gain automatic entry to the US Open next month.

“I go back to 125 or 126 in the rankings,” he said. “The hard court season now is an amazing opportunity for me. Even if I could win one of the Challengers or have a deep run at one of the ATPs, I could be top hundred before the U.S. That’s the goal at the end of the day.

“I’m feeling good. I feel like, especially the last three matches, I can compete with some of these guys.”

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