Home hopes dashed as Broady and Bambridge fall
Then there were none. British hopes of success in the Boys’ Singles draw at this year’s Championships were dashed following third round defeats for Liam Broady and Luke Bambridge. The pair were the only remaining Brits in the junior draw following Katy Dunne’s second-round exit earlier in the day.
Bambridge swept past Maximilan Marterer in straight sets to set up a third-round clash with No.1 seed, Luke Saville, who also won his rescheduled second-round match in straight sets.
Nottingham’s world junior No.40 clinched the first set against Marterer 6-3 before surviving a scare in the second set when serving for the match at 5-2. Bambridge held his nerve at the second time of asking to complete the 6-3, 6-4 victory in 1hr and 11mins.
Bambridge was pleased with the win and said: ‘’I’m very happy with the result. I played pretty well and toughed out some really hard situations. He’s a tall lefty with a big serve and big forehand so he was pretty tough to play. I got into a lot of rallies with some solid returns and served pretty well so I was always in the point and never really gave him the chance to expose his game on me.’’
Bambridge returned to action on Court 19 against his namesake, however, it was the Australian who prevailed, winning a tightly contested encounter 7-6(4), 6-4. The junior world No.1 now faces 6th seed Nikola Milojevic in the quarter-finals as he bids to retain his Wimbledon title. Milojevic battled back from a set down to triumph over Thai-son Kwiatkowski 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
There was further disappointment for the Brits on Court 19 as fifth seed Liam Broady crashed out in the third round to Enzo Couacaud. In similar circumstances to Tuesday’s triumph over 14-year-old Stefan Kozlov, the Stockport youngster double faulted at crucial points, which allowed the Frenchman to capitalise and clinch the opening set in a tie-break.
Broady, who is in his last year of competing on the junior circuit, contributed to his own downfall as he managed to hit just 30 per cent of his first serves in, and gifted Couacaud 16 double faults and 40 unforced errors. The Frenchman wrapped up the second set 6-3 to book a quarter-final date with Filip Peliwo.
The Canadian eased through to the quarter-finals in straight sets where he will meet eighth seed Mitchell Krueger. Peliwo remains on course to meet second seed Kimmer Coppejans in the semi-finals after the Belgian defeated Pedja Krstin in the only other rescheduled second-round match earlier in the day. Coppejans then ousted Portuguese left-hander Federico Silva 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-4 in a little over two hours.
The only other upset of the day came as Australian Nick Gyrgios defeated seventh seed Kaichi Uchida to book a quarter-final clash with Italian third seed Gianluigi Quinzi.
