He was cheered on to Court No 2 and roared off it. In between, Liam Broady threatened to be the most unlikely of flag-bearers for British men at these Championships, before ultimately following Andy Murray and Cameron Norrie on that same walk of the damned.
That he reached the third round is a fine thing indeed and one that will be worth £131,000 to an engaging man who has brought considerable charm to this garden party.
And yet it is still possible for regrets to reside within his mind, given he had such a glorious chance to follow his unseating of the fourth seed, Casper Ruud, with the scalp of the 26th, Denis Shapovolov.
Precisely, his thoughts will drift to the third set, when under a burning sun and having shared the first two, he held a 5-2 lead. He was in control. He was getting everything back, rocket after Canadian rocket.
And as he did so, the mood of Shapovolov, a semi-finalist here two years ago, was getting worse. But then it all went wrong and fast – the next five games sided with the rankings over romance, and Broady then fell 7-5 again in the fourth.
Liam Broady bowed out of Wimbledon after suffering defeat to Denis Shapovalov on Friday
Canada’s Shapovalov was in fine form as he came from behind to win in four sets at Wimbledon
Broady was cheered on to Court No 2 and roared off it after a fine performance at Wimbledon
It will sting for a while. But one hopes the 29-year-old won’t be too hard on himself – runs like his are the stuff that add verve to the first week of any Wimbledon. Frankly, in an edition when thrills have been conspicuously thin on the ground, the surge of the world No 142 has done a tremendous amount of lifting for the tournament.
An element of that is the content – pounding Ruud 6-0 in their decider on Thursday was special. But it also about his context, for this was a child star whose progression to men’s tennis was so patchy he considered quitting a few years back.
That he can raise a laugh about the slog of his craft was demonstrated so well at the microphone after the Ruud win: ‘I said to my mum this morning, “Look, I’ve already won 80 grand this week, so you can chill out a bit”.’
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They love all that in these parts and Broady has certainly made an impact. Might have been more, but that is quibbling. At the very least, he went down in a thriller of a match.
The undulations were foretold in the barmy nature of the opening set, during which neither man had any real grasp on their serve. Not what you would wish to teach but not what you want to miss as a fan – it was immediately gripping.
Broady threatened to be the most unlikely of flag-bearers for British men at Wimbledon
The world No 142 has provided a tremendous amount of entertainment at the tournament
In the first four games alone, there were three breaks and the one in which there wasn’t, when Shapovalov was serving at 2-1 up, Broady was unable to capitalise on no fewer than five chances to level. Instead he went 3-1 down, but that was only a temporary deficit.
It was soon 3-3 and Shapovolov was rapidly settling into a routine of chuntering to his team. At one stage he shouted ‘why?’ and the answer to his question seemed obvious – his huge serves, clocking near 130mph, were missing their marks and he was ballooning his forehand beyond the lines over and again. He was all power and no precision, which was his tale across the entirety of that first set.
It gave Broady something to target and he did it well, with a decisive break coming at 5-4 in front when Shopovolov netted to end a long rally and an enjoyable set.
At this stage, the matches involving Murray and Norrie were becoming problematic. Could Broady be the Brit to stay on his feet?
The possibility seemed to fade sharply in the second set when Shapovolov’s level rose sharply. He broke in the third game for 2-1, but whereas he had a mess of errors and loose serves in the opener, he now had some swagger. Broady had a brief look at a break at 3-2 down, which went untaken, and from there he lost another service game for 5-2. The set was wrapped up a moment later.
With Broady, Norrie and Murray crashing out, the charge of British men at Wimbledon is over
Into the third and the story of regrets. Broady had snatched control with a break for 3-1, gave it back in the next, but there followed a third straight momentum swing and a 4-2 lead.
The Brit extended to 5-2, but in a sequence that will haunt his nightmares, he unravelled. Most disappointing in that stretch were the two service games at 5-3 and 5-5 – he took just one point between them.
They are the moments when big players thrive and Broady, for all his strengths on this surface, could not.
The fourth set was level until the 11th game when Broady put a forehand into the net. With that break – the 13th of the match – the charge of British men at Wimbledon was over.
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