Broady follows Murray and Norrie with Wimbledon exit on crushing day for Brits

Liam Broady was dumped out of Wimbledon by Denis Shapovalov on Friday to complete a crushing day for the home fans, with all three British hopefuls in the men’s draw defeated. Andy Murray and Cameron Norrie suffered the same fate at the All England Club, with Katie Boulter now left to fly the flag solo.

The tone was set early on Court 2 as the first three games were all breaks of serve. Broady and Shapovalov took turns threatening to make headway before being pegged back, but general wayward play from the Canadian opened the door for Broady to take the first set.

Shapovalov found his rhythm in the second to level up the scores, but breaks of serve remained frequent going into the third as Broady flirted with solid progress, only for his 26th seed opponent to fight back and forge ahead.

The home favourite spurned multiple break points in the fourth, which would have sent the match well on its way to going thhe distance, and Shapovalov punished the 29-year-old ruthlessly to clinch the match 4-6 6-2 7-5 7-5 in just over three hours.

Broady, ranked No 142 in the world, was always a heavy underdog going into Friday’s match, despite his surprise win over fourth seed Casper Ruud earlier in the week. Shapovalov made it all the way to the Wimbledon semi-finals back in 2021, and he managed to find that quality with enough regularity against Broady to book his spot in the last 16.

The Stockport-born hopeful’s exit capped off a dreadful day for the Brits at SW19, with Murray and Norrie also falling short. The former will be especially disappointed, having held a two sets to one lead against Stefanos Tsitsipas when play was suspended due to Thursday night’s 11pm curfew.

Norrie, meanwhile, was on the wrong end of a Wimbledon upset, as he was only able to take one set from 6ft 7in American Christopher Eubanks.

The British No 1 was hoping to recreate last year’s run to the semi-finals in south-west London, where he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. Norrie carried a slight knee injury into the tournament, but he had enough to earn a four-set win over Tomas Machac in the first round on Tuesday.

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