Wimbledon 2022: Milestone wins for Boulter and Broady, both into third round for first time

Wednesday was an extraordinary day for British players at Wimbledon. Of the 17 men and women in the singles draws, it was the two most renowned names, US Open champion Emma Raducanu and two-time former Wimbledon champion, Andy Murray, who lost in the second round—both at an earlier stage than they had last year.

Indeed Murray had never lost before the third round, and never lost to John Isner in eight previous meetings. But when faced with players producing their best—and both Isner and Caroline Garcia have enjoyed top-10 rankings—tennis is an unforgiving sport.

Only one seeded Briton, No9 Cam Norrie, had so far made it to the third round, though he was soon followed by Heather Watson, who for the second match in a row had to stop for dark and conclude the next day. It was a harsh, as she outlined after her brisk conclusion against Qiang Wang, 7-5, 6-4:

“I got probably just shy of four hours’ sleep. Yeah, woke up not feeling great this morning. But it’s been a really tough few days for me with the scheduling. It’s not been on my side at all. I’ve just tried to do the best I could. In every situation try to stay positive and in the moment. I feel like I’ve handled it really well. I think I actually might go back for a nap before doubles because they’ve scheduled me not before 6pm tonight, and I’ll have singles again tomorrow!”

There were four more Britons left who could join her and Norrie in the third round. Harriet Dart, ranked 94, was always going to face an uphill battle against the No8 seed Jessica Pegula, but she won the first set, 6-4, before losing the match, 3-6, 1-6.

She cut a sad picture in a brief press conference:

“Obviously against a top-10 player, you can’t drop your level because they’re only going to get better… At the end of the day it’s about finding solutions. Today I didn’t find any. That’s something I’ll need to go back to the drawing board and work on. Every match is about finding solutions. Today I just didn’t find that.”

But then there were two outstanding wins back-to-back, and within minutes of each other. On Centre Court, Katie Boulter took on last year’s runner-up and former No1 Karolina Pliskova, but she did so in the knowledge that she had beaten the tall Czech in Eastbourne a week ago.

Boulter played with a wild card, ranked 118—up more than 100 places since this time last year—and was aiming for the third round here for the first time. She had, though, been well inside the top 100 in 2019 before a stress fracture in her back knocked her back for the rest of the year. Then came the Covid closure in 2020, but now her prodigious early promise was bringing her back into contention, recently with a quarter-final run in Birmingham before that Pliskova win.

Now she would play for a new milestone, and by playing on Centre Court for the first time. Not only that, she did so having seen a quick early lead lost in the first set, 3-6. But she came back to win the second and third sets for a hugely emotional victory, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Her achievements, the noise of the crowd, her return from adversity to beat a former No1 on tennis’s most prestigious stage was enough to make anyone emotional. But she then revealed that she wanted to dedicate the win to her grandmother, who had died two days before. There was not a dry eye in the house.

And she carried out one of the most articulate, thoughtful and relaxed press conferences one could imagine. She was asked about the ebb and flow of the match, and the win.

“I think I started really well, and I kind of gave away my advantage a little bit in one of the games. So I was a little bit frustrated with that. From then on, she picked up her game and her momentum. She’s a very aggressive player…The best I can do is staying strong and hoping for the opportunity. Eventually I got it today. Today I managed to get the win.”

Inevitably, she was also asked about her grandmother:

“I’m probably not going to dive into that one because I might get quite emotional. But, yeah, it’s been a tough few days for sure. As a general, I’ve tried to kind of get my emotions out and deal with the situation, try and keep my head on the tennis. I was lucky because my grandpa managed to come down from Leicester, and so we could keep him company and keep supporting him at the same time.”

It transpired that her mother had broken the news after her first win here. She went on:

“Yeah, she’s always someone who’s been right into tennis from stage one. She lives just down the road from the tennis club. That’s where I started playing tennis Yeah, Leicestershire is very close to my heart. I’ve spent a lot of time on the courts there with my grandparents and my family. It’s a lot of memories. Yeah, ones I cherish.”

For now, she was going to recover from her match, then head to court to watch her boyfriend, No19 seed Alex de Minaur against the other Brit still contesting a third-round place, Jack Draper. She would, she intimated, by in the Aussie’s box.

Then on Saturday, she will aim to reach the last 16 against Harmony Tan, who beat Serena Williams in the first round.

But soon after this headline-making story, Liam Broady also won through to the third round for the first time. He had already taken five sets to beat Lukas Klein, and would have to do the same against the much higher-ranked No12 seed Diego Schwartzman, who had beaten him at the same stage here last year.

The Briton, ranked 132, was bidding to win only his third tour-level match of 2022, and looked on his way home after going 6-2, 4-6, 0-6 down and then 0-3 down in the fourth. But he worked back to win a tie-break and then was all over a fading Schwartzman, 7-6 (6), 6-1 after a gruelling three and three-quarter hours.

Not that he showed any signs of weariness when interviewed on court: He is an extrovert, engaging character who is finally, it seems, reaping the rewards for a more dedicated approach to his sport.

It was back in 2011 that Broady made the Wimbledon boys’ final, but he did not win his first Challenger title until last year, then reached a career-high 116 this season. No wonder he could not take the smile off his face throughout a long press conference:

“Really happy with it. I mean, the first time having played two five-set matches in a row. To have come through, and against Diego… he’s one of the fittest guys on tour. To have managed to get him in five sets—yeah, really happy with it. First time in third round of Wimbledon. Good day (smiling).”

It so happens that he could play the other remaining Briton, Draper, who was only into his seventh game against de Minaur on Court 1 when the heavens opened and play was suspended. What did Broady think?

“I fancy myself against anybody, to be honest. I’ve practised with Jack a lot so we know each other’s games well.. Hopefully for Jack, he gets through. I mean, it’s never nice to play a Brit [but] the more Brits we can get deeper in the tournament, the better. It would be a good showing, I think.”