Black Friday for Great Britain as Murray, Norrie, and Broady all crash out of Wimbledon

Heading into the late afternoon on Friday, there were three British men left in the Wimbledon draw. By the conclusion of Friday night, that number had been reduced to zero.

Andy Murray lost from two sets to one up against Stefanos Tsitsipas. Cameron Norrie was a significant favorite over Chris Eubanks but fell in four sets. Liam Broady, who upset Casper Ruud in round two, found himself as an underdog again in the last 32 but still had a good chance to beat a struggling Denis Shapovalov. Instead, Broady surrendered a set advantage and lost in four.

“I’m obviously very disappointed just now,” Murray said following his 7-6(3), 6-7(2), 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 setback. “Yeah, obviously you never know how many opportunities you’re going to get to play here. The defeats maybe feel a bit tougher. But, to be honest, every year that Wimbledon’s not gone how I would like, it’s been hard.”

For Norrie, Wimbledon went extremely well in 2022. The left-hander made a surprising run all the way to the semifinals before succumbing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. This time around, Norrie bowed out in the second round on the heels of a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(3) decision against Eubanks. Thus continues an amazing surge for Eubanks, who just captured his first ATP title on the grass courts of Mallorca.

But, in his own words, that wasn’t as big as this.

“Biggest win of my career, no question, by far,” the Georgia Tech product said of taking down the former TCU star. “Considering the moment, considering the stage, who I was playing, where I played him–by far the biggest win of my career.”

Eubanks started the season ranked No. 123 and could be in the top 40 even if he loses his next match. But he is not getting caught up in the success–at least not yet.

“I think finally when I’m able to land in Atlanta, get home, get settled in, that’s when I can really say, ‘wow.’ Get back into my familiar settings, whether that’s training at Tech or going in the gym again, the same gym I work in. I think that’s when things will start to settle in. Right now it’s just kind of like, ‘all right, next match, let’s keep going, let’s see what else we can do.”

There is nothing else the Brits can do on the men’s side, and only Katie Boulter remains in the women’s draw.

Nonetheless, Broady is upbeat about the state of his country’s tennis.

“I think the men’s is obviously in a fantastic state at the moment,” the world No. 142 commented following his 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 loss to Shapovalov. “Obviously with Jack (Draper) not playing, I think that’s such a shame because I think he could have done really well this year. He’s improving all the time. I think he’s going to have a breakout Wimbledon at some point. It’s just a matter of time. I think Cam could have easily gone deep. Andy could have easily gone deep. Dan Evans, he’s a bit low on confidence at the moment, but he could have easily gone deep in the tournament.

“The women’s side, maybe some of the girls didn’t have the Wimbledon they’d hoped to after some of the performances they’ve put in over the course of the grass-court season.

“That’s tennis at the end of the day.”