British wildcard beats fourth seed in five sets to enter

LONDON: British wildcard Liam Broady recorded the biggest shock of Wimbledon 2023 when he stunned fourth seed Casper Ruud of Norway 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 in front of a delirious Centre Court crowd on Thursday.

In the second-round contest, Broady belied his 142nd ranking against a player who has reached three of the last five Grand Slam finals but had struggled at Wimbledon in his three previous appearances. After four closely-fought sets, Ruud looked like he had mentally packed his bags in the fifth as Broady ripped through it, barely dropping a point, to seal a memorable win.

“When I went to bed last night (Wednesday), I was having a think of what I would say if I won the match, but now I am here I do not know what to say,” Broady said. “I said to my mum this morning (Thursday), she does not like watching, but I said I have already won 80,000 pounds this week, so she can chill out a bit.”

Apart from one of them being one of the world’s top players and the other every inch a Tour journeyman, there was very little between the two for much of the match – not least in their extraordinarily similar appearance.

Broady was into his stride quickly as the Norwegian struggled to adapt to the grass surface and though the Briton was first to drop serve, he hit back to take the first set. There was a similar start to the second set as Ruud broke for 3-1, but this time maintained his advantage. When he went two sets to one up, it seemed the natural order would be resumed, but Broady thought otherwise.

He cut down his errors and produced a run of strong service games to take charge of the fourth set, epitomised by serving out to love to force a decider.

After Ruud started to wilt and needed medical attention for blisters on his foot, Broady sensed blood, breaking to love in the opening game of the fifth set. He came from 0-40 down to break again and served out to love for 4-0. He broke to love once again and served out for his first Tour win over a top-10 player.

It took a 10-point shootout, but French fifth seed Caroline Garcia overcame Leylah Fernandez in three sets (3-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) to reach the women’s third round.

Having dropped the opening set 3-6, in which Fernandez slammed 10 clean winners, the Frenchwoman – her right racket-arm and shoulder strapped heavily – levelled the contest with a 6-4 score in the second set. She did just enough to edge the championship tie-break in a decider during which neither player was able to break serve.

RESULTS (SELECTED): Second round: Men’s singles: L Broady bt C Ruud 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0; A Rublev bt A Karatsev 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-4, 7-5; J Choinski lost to H Hurkacz 4-6, 4-6, 6-7(3); L Musetti bt J Munar 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.

Women’s singles: L Fernandez lost to C Garcia 6-3, 4-6, 6-7(6); S Cirstea bt J Ostapenko 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4; B Haddad Maia bt J Cristian 4-6, 6-2, 6-4; M Andreeva bt B Krejcikova 6-3, 4-0 (walkover); V Kudermetova lost to M Vondrousova 3-6, 3-6; N Podoroska lost to V Azarenka 3-6, 0-6