Liam Broady took to the court in his first round at Wimbledon. This was his first ever match at The All England Club. He got here courtesy of a wildcard granted by the LTA & AELTCC as a thank you for helping the team in Davis cup and the amazing run up the rankings he has made from last year. Broady was up against Marinko Matosevic from Australia. This would be another rivalry between the two countries, with Matosevic making the best start and taking the first set 7-5.
In an interesting second set, Matosevic got a break that would see him take the set 6-4 to be leading by 2-0. Broady needed the crowd to get behind him, and the packed out Court 18 obliged. The court had been packed out before the match started, as Brits have to stick together, so there was plenty there to support Broady. This was the first match Broady had ever played at Wimbledon and so by extension would be his first ever 5 set match if he was to get the win.
As the crowd were getting more into this as the Brit motioned for them to get behind him and make noise, Broady started to get a handle on the Matosevic serve. By breaking serve he managed to claim the set and the fight was on. Still, Could he make a comeback and go on to win this. Set four and Broady was really getting the crowd going with his amazing play and he broke twice to seal the set. The match was going the distance a one set shoot out to get into Round 2.
With the Great Britain Davis Cup captain watching on, and a totally partisan crowd, Broady and Matosevic exchanged breaks of serve and the score stood at 5-3 to Broady as he held comfortably. Matosevic would be serving to stay in the match and force Broday to serve for the win.
Broady had other ideas though, with amazing play and very close points Broady managed to get match point. Matosevic saved that one and forced deuce, when Broady managed to engineer another match point he didn’t make a mistake and took it.
Liam Broady is the first Brit into Round 2 at this year’s Championships. Who will join him when the bottom half of the draw plays Tuesday?
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