Rain been the biggest problem throughout week one at Wimbledon, while darkness has also been a factor.
On Thursday, it was neither of those things that interrupted play at the All-England Club.
Instead, the 11:00 pm curfew brought an untimely conclusion to the proceedings. Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas were battling it out on Centre Court when the deadline forced the two players–and a throng of disgruntled British fans–to come back and finish the deal on Friday. Murray leads Tsitsipas two sets to one (6-7(3), 7-6(2), 6-4).
Any fans who won’t be around for the resumption and could miss what has a chance to be a famous Murray victory actually have a different British player to blame. That’s not to say Liam Broady was at fault, of course, for what happened early on Thursday. Asking him to win quickly against No. 4 seed Casper Ruud would have been unrealistic. Broady did, in fact, win–but it required five sets and almost three and a half hours for the 29-year-old to pull off the biggest win of his career. He defeated Ruud 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 to set up a second-round meeting with Denis Shapovalov.
“It feels good,” Broady assured, “because obviously as a junior…I was a very good junior. I got to No. 2 in the world. I played on Court 1 in the finals of the juniors. I was a set and a break up; I completely choked it–completely guffed it. That has kind of haunted me my entire career, to be honest.
“I think that is kind of one of the reasons why it took me so long to win a Challenger, as well. I lost seven Challenger finals in a row. It always bothered me coming back and playing on the bigger courts, and never really feeling like I was comfortable and had performed. Losing to Andy on Centre, losing to (Milos) Raonic on 1, and then (Alex) de Minaur on 1 and never winning so much as a set.
“That’s why it felt good today. I feel like it’s taken a monumental effort for me personally to be able to win a match on Centre Court at Wimbledon…. That was a big one for me.”
The world No. 142 will be back in action on Friday, when both he and Murray try to earn places in the round of 32. Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie will be looking to do the same, as the 2022 semifinalist goes up against Mallorca champion Chris Eubanks.
will Murray get it done?
Alas poor Andy 🙁