Emma Raducanu will aim to lead the Brit charge at Wimbledon when she returns to Centre Court later today.
Nine British players had made their way into the second round by the close of play yesterday, the best for 25 years at SW19.
Raducanu faces France’s Caroline Garcia on the main show court this afternoon, followed by Andy Murray against the big-serving John Isner, with six Brits in action in total on Wednesday.
Heather Watson, who takes on Qiang Wang, credited the Raducanu effect and her fairytale win at last year’s US Open for lifting her and her fellow British players.
“Seeing Emma do what she did, it was incredible,” said Watson, who won her first-round match against Tamara Korpatsch on Monday. “I think all of us Brits are so supportive of each other.
“I saw her here for the first time. We both gave each other a big hug, saying ‘well done’. It was straight after my match. We have a great spirit among the male and female players. There’s not a massive group of us, so I think we’re really just tightly-knit.”
Watson is on a WhatsApp group with her fellow team-mates from the Battle of the Brits, the all-British event set up by Andy Murray’s brother Jamie during the height of Covid.
The British cause at Wimbledon has been helped, to a certain degree, by the draw. Not one of the 17 home players in either the men’s or women’s singles had to face a seed in their opening-round match.
But there is also a growing strength in depth within the game in the UK: six Brits in the top 150 of the ATP Tour rankings and five in the WTA’s top 150. And players like Ryan Peniston, who is playing American Steve Johnson on Court Three today, Jack Draper and Katie Boulter have been enjoying breakout summers.
Draper, who was a first-round winner against Zizou Bergs, credited tennis’ governing body in the UK for the current burgeoning state of British tennis.
He said: “The LTA has done an unbelievable job of cultivating that as well for the players. We’re all getting behind each other, want each other to do well. That’s a big part of the success at the moment.
“It’s a tough sport, tennis. I think it’s better to work as a team, even though it is an individual sport. We all want to improve and keep learning and get to the top of the sport.”
Another first-round winner, Boulter has shone on grass this summer with impressive showings against last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Pliskova and two-time champion Petra Kvitova having finally seemingly overcome a series of injury setbacks.
Of this year’s Brit revival at Wimbledon, she said: “I’m absolutely loving it. I feel like everyone’s pushing themselves, almost just spurring each other on with the little bit of magic that’s going on in British tennis right now.
“I feel like I’m catching a little bit of it and I hope that I can push other people with that. It’s really nice to be a part of it. I know how hard they work behind the scenes.
“Everyone’s doing great and hopefully we can keep that going. We’re in a really, really good place. I hope many more wins will come off the back of that.”
