Broady knocks off Ruud at Wimbledon, Murray vs. Tsitsipas halted

There was no rain on Thursday at Wimbledon. Darkness was once again a factor, interrupting the Daniil Medvedev vs. Adrian Mannarino match on Court 3.

But it was a different culprit that made the most news for interrupting the latest order of play at the All-England Club: the 11:00 pm curfew.

With Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas doing battle on Centre Court well into the night, the curfew halted play following the third set. Murray leads Tsitsipas two sets to one at 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 6-4, but a throng of disgruntled British fans weren’t able to see the conclusion.

If they don’t have Centre Court tickets for Friday, they could miss what has a chance to be a famous Murray victory. If that’s the case, they have a different British player to blame.

That’s not to say Liam Broady was at fault, of course, for what transpired during the afternoon on Thursday. Asking the world No. 142 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 score the biggest win of his career. He beat Ruud 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 to reach the second round.

“It feels good,” Broady said at his post-match press conference, “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.”

Broady will also play on Friday, when both he and Murray try to earn spots in the third round.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.