Broady finally arrives after a decade of pain
Liam Broady (GB) bt Diego Schwartzman (Argentina) 6-2, 4-6, 0-6, 7-6, 6-1
What will Liam Broady do with his £120,000 prize money for reaching the third round? “I might just withdraw it all,” he said last night, “and just, like, lie on it.”
At 28, Broady has been searching for this sort of payday throughout a decade of professional tennis. He was an outstanding junior who made the final of the Wimbledon boys’ event, only to struggle with the transition to the main tour.
Despite his athleticism, and his compact left-handed game style, Broady has never managed to climb higher than 116 in the world rankings. But yesterday, by outlasting noted road-runner Diego Schwartzman over five brutally physical sets, he proved that he has finally arrived. Better late than never.
“Every player has to have a big win on a big court,” said Dave Sammel, Broady’s stalwart coach, and a man who has been at the heart of British tennis for three decades. “For Liam, this is his moment. I was pretty calm – then I thought it was gone when Schwartzman came back. But he found a way and that is what makes a top player. Everyone knows how long his journey has been.”
Played on Court No3, the match was the antithesis of the John Isnerkevin Anderson ace-fest from 2018. With Broady standing 6ft tall and Schwartzman just 5ft 7in, this was a Lilliputian contest by the lofty standards of professional tennis. Between them, they served only 12
aces in 296 points, so there was a lot of running before Broady finally surged across the finish line.
Broady sounded almost surprised by his own feat of endurance. To win a 3hr 47min slugfest against one of the acknowledged beasts of the tour was a striking achievement in itself, and even more so when you consider that Broady had needed 3hr 31min to beat Lukas Klein in another five-setter on Tuesday.
Such lung capacity can only be
built over the long haul. Broady put in a big shift last year with Andy Murray’s former fitness trainer Jez Green, and has recently topped that up with another six weeks of hard work alongside Kieron Vorster – the London-based South African who used to help Tim Henman with his strength and conditioning.
Broady is a gregarious soul who is known and liked by everyone in British tennis. If anything, he has been too easygoing, too ready to go
with the flow, which could be one reason why he has spent the past decade playing Challengers instead of these more lucrative events.
Murray often banters with Broady on social media, and is one of many who would love to see him crack the top 100. However, these two wins will not help at all, because there are no rankings points at stake during this year’s Wimbledon, as a result of the ban on Russian and Belarusian players.