BROADY AT LOOSE END

Brit’s OUT after racquet strung too slack...

BY

LIAM BROADY couldn’t ratchet up the tension on Court No.1 quickly enough – and paid the price.

The Stockport left-hander failed to reach the fourth round after losing to tricky Aussie Alex De Minaur (below) – and afterwards suggested he was hampered by his racquets.

Broady gave a good account of himself but only increased the pressure on the 19th seed during a tight third set before falling to a 6-3 6-4 7-5 defeat.

The 28-year-old explained afterwards that it was only after he sent a racquet to be re-tensioned that he felt at ease.

He said: “In the first couple of sets I felt like the ball was flying off my strings a bit.

“I was bugging the umpire because I sent a racquet off to get it tightened.

“It only came back once I was one break down in the third.

“I brought it out and just felt a lot more comfortable.

“The ball was doing what I was telling it to do – but the change was probably too late.

“I know that back in the day Bjorn Borg used to have 20 racquets in his bag. I only had three – although they were strung properly at the tension I played at on other days.

“But sometimes it just doesn’t feel right. Actually, if I look back over the past 10 years of my career, there have been days when I just accepted the ball feels a bit rubbish off the strings and just carried on playing the match.

“As I’ve grown older, I’ve realised that if it doesn’t feel right, it can be down to the equipment as well.

“I was raised on the mantra of, ‘A workman doesn’t blame his tools’. In my head, I thought, ‘Get over it’. I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if I’d had a tighter racquet.

“At the end, I felt like it was the old Jimmy Connors saying – ‘I didn’t lose, I just ran out of time’.

“I’m going to speak to my sponsor and say, ‘Look I need a couple more racquets in the bag so I can have a couple of different tensions to stop that happening again’.

Broady felt there was still improvement in his game – saying this week will have given him confidence to improve his ranking despite the lack of points from this tournament.

He added: “I think my tennis is there. I don’t think you can beat Hubert Hurkacz at the Olympics, as I did last summer, without being able to play.

“And this last year-and-a-half, I’ve had some really good wins.

“It’s just doing it more consistently and believing in myself more.”

As for De Minaur – nicknamed Demon by his pals – he is hoping after defeating two Brits that he now feels the love of the Wimbledon crowd.

Speaking courtside, he said: “It was a relief. It was definitely a lot harder than I wanted it to be near the end.

“But playing a Brit on this amazing court in front of this amazing crowd is not easy.

“If I can get your guys’ support, it would mean the world.”