There was a mass exodus of British players on day three of Wimbledon as five of the six in action crashed out. Seven Brits were scheduled to play but Jan Choinski’s second-round match with Hubert Hurkacz fell victim to more rain and was cancelled. Katie Boulter showed why she is the British No 1 by beating Daria Saville. But Jodie Burrage, Arthur Fery, Heather Watson, George Loffhagen and Sonay Kartal were all ousted in straight sets.
British No 1 Boulter got off to a winning start as her match was one of the few that managed to get started on Tuesday before the rain came. But she was the only Brit to get a win on the board on day three.
The 26-year-old was 5-6 on serve against Daria Saville when play resumed and she was able to force a tiebreak. There was chaos as a Just Stop Oil protestor took to the court as the pair changed ends with the Australian leading 4-2.
But Boulter maintained focus throughout the delay that it caused and rattled off the next five points of the tiebreak to take the first set when they continued. And she stormed through the second to win 7-6(4) 6-2 and finally book her spot in the second round to face Viktoriya Tomova.
It was a different story for the British No 2 though as Burrage made her Centre Court debut against ninth seed Kasatkina. The Russian raced through the first seven games to take a commanding 6-0 1-0 lead before Burrage fired back to break and lead 2-1. But she was unable to win another game with Kasatkina taking the last five in a row to advance 6-0 6-2.
She was still happy to get her first Centre Court experience and after the match, Burrage said: “It’s obviously a massive court. Never played on anything like that. So for me, instead of thinking it’s not a big deal, like, I wanted to embrace it. I feel like I did. I didn’t actually feel too, like, concerned about the court and the people. My opponent played pretty well, put me under pressure. That’s what I was thinking about.” She is still expected to make her top 100 debut.
Arthur Fery followed Burrage out of the draw as he made his Grand Slam debut as a wildcard. The 20-year-old had a tough draw in third seed Medvedev and the pair had their match carried over after it failed to start on Tuesday. Bumped up to Court 1, Fery took an early break and stayed with the Grand Slam champion in the first set before Medvedev stepped it up to take it 7-5.
The pair broke each other early in the second but Medvedev again rose his level when it mattered and broke again to close it out 6-4. And the former world No 1 raced to punch his ticket to the second round with two more breaks to take it 7-5 6-4 6-3.
Watson also crashed out on Court 1 like Burrage as she came up against 10th seed and former French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova. The Czech star raced through the opening set before Watson made things more competitive in the second. But Krejcikova was another top player who peaked in the right moments – breaking in the final game of the match to win 6-2 7-5.
Like Boulter, Loffhagen had started his match on Tuesday before being rained off. The 22-year-old gave sixth seed Holger Rune a run for his money when he contested a tight first set but lost in a tiebreak before their match was carried over.
And he couldn’t stay with the four-time title winner when they returned on Wednesday as Rune broke serve three times to secure a 7-6(4) 6-3 6-2 victory. Sonay Kartal followed on Court 3 as she faced a tough opponent in 25th seed Madison Keys – coming in fresh off the back of winning Eastbourne.
The 21-year-old was bidding to notch her first Wimbledon match win in her second appearance but was no match for the in-form American, who raced to a 6-0 lead in just 27 minutes. She snapped Keys’ streak of games at seven to finally get on the board but only managed three in total as the 25th seed put on a ruthless display to win 6-0 6-3.
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