Frustration for Broady
IT was a frustrating end to Liam Broady’s Wimbledon men’s doubles campaign after he and partner Scott Clayton were forced to retire in their second round match.
Broady and Clayton had reached the second round after a victory over Frances Tiafoe and Jackson Withrow, and were then going up against Maximo Gornzalez and Nicolas Jarry.
After two hard-fought sets, the duo were forced to retire after Clayton suffered a severe wrist injury and was no longer able to compete, meaning the match ended while Gonzalez and Jarry led 7-6, 6-3, 2-1.
“‘I’ve felt it for a couple of weeks now. In our firstround match it was pretty bad but we managed to get through, and in our second round game I had to stop practice after 20 minutes,” said Clayton.
“I did everything I could have to try and be fit to play but it wasn’t enough.
‘It’s not an ideal situation but things could be worse. We were in the second round of Wimbledon and we’ve been playing really good tennis, so the main focus is to get the wrist back to 100 per cent as quick as we can and get on the road again.
“We were playing well in the first set and had our game-plan down to a tee. My backhand volley was painful so we were trying to get me on the forehand as much as possible, and it was working, but even if we had won the first set there was no way I was finishing the match. That was my aim before we went on court [to finish], but it was just getting progressively worse.”
Liam’s sister Naomi also saw her Wimbledon campaign come to an end as she was knocked out in the second round of the mixed doubles with partner Neal Skupski. They lost 6-4 7-6 to the team of Matwe Middelkoop and Johanna Larsson.
Naomi also suffered a first round defeat in the women’s doubles last week.