Liam Broady produced the performance of his career to stun No4 seed Casper Ruud and book his place in the third round of Wimbledon for a second straight year.
Lifted by the support of the Centre Court crowd, he bounced back from falling two sets to one behind to win 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 for the first victory of his career over a top-10 player.
It was all the more impressive as Ruud had made three of the last five grand slam finals, most recently the French Open where he lost out to Novak Djokovic.
Christian Ruud’s father had played in the Wimbledon main draw on five occasions and not won a match. Unfortunately for Ruud Jr, the uneasiness on grass has not skipped a generation, this the second time he has bowed out in the second round.
Broady now faces another arduous task in the next round against another seed in Denis Shapovalov, a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2021.
As for Ruud, his attempt to master the grass goes on, although his build-up to Wimbledon was questionable having flitted post-Paris between sunbathing on a boat, shooting, finetuning his golf game and watching the Weeknd in concert.
In contrast, Broady has spent much of the season scrapping away on the lower-tier challenger tournaments in a bid to improve his ranking. And it paid off for a win which edges him closer to the world’s top 100 and guarantees him a £131,000 payday.
Afterwards, the 29-year-old, who laughed throughout his post-match on-court interview, said: “When I went to bed last night, I was having a think about what I’d say if I won the match and I don’t really know what to say now.
“It’s a terrifying, exhilarating experience coming out on Centre Court. It’s been my dream since I was five years old. I said to my mum she doesn’t like watching I’ve already won £80,000 grand this week so you can chill out.”
It was a strange match that ebbed and flowed throughout. At times, it felt like Ruud was finally getting into a rhythm on the grass. At others, the Norwegian, who suffers from pollen allergy which might partially account for his dissatisfaction here, he couldn’t have looked more out of sorts out on Centre Court.
There were breaks aplenty in that opening set, two for Broady and one for Ruud, who managed to win both the second and third and yet still didn’t look entirely comfortable for any great stretch of games.
But his experience and higher ranking gave the impression he would find a way to win. Instead, it was Broady who found the only break of the fourth set.
At the change of ends, Ruud needed his toe taped by the trainer, while Broady carried on the momentum in some style. He had played just three five-setters in his career and won them all. This was no different - he broke in the opening service game to love and didn’t drop a game all set.
