Brit Liam Broady beats fourth seed Casper Ruud in five-set thriller on Centre Court at Wimbledon

After a decade of slogging around the circuit Liam Broady gained the highest profile win of his career as he brought the Centre Court to its feet with the defeat of world number four Casper Ruud.

The world No 142 from Fred Perry’s hometown of Stockport knocked out the double French Open finalist 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 in three hours and 27 minutes to make the third round of Wimbledon.

The 29-year-old left-hander, who has never been in the world’s top 100, held his nerve to close out the decider with a remarkable lack of fuss.

He now faces another left-hander in Canadain shotmaker Denis Shapovalov.

‘It’s a pretty terrifying exhilarating experience coming out on centre court, it has been my dream since I was five years old,’ he said. ‘Denis is a mercurial talent, one of the best players in the world, with a crowd like this why not have a go again?’

Broady’s girlfriend Eden Silva (centre) cheered the 29-year-old to victory at Wimbledon

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Broady will have known this was a realistic chance against a player who is outstanding on other surfaces but is a classic example of the international player with a deep suspicion of grass.

From the start the kind of timing which has seen him reach three Grand Slam finals in 14 months – two in Paris and one in New York – was not there, especially on the forehand side.

More puzzlingly his first serve also deserted him in the first set, landing in less than four out of ten. After coming back from 3-1 down the lefthander was on his way, even thugh he needed a flukey net cord to help him close out the opener.

Ruud was more assured in the second but Broady was well in the third until he completely lost concentration at 4-4 to play his worst service game of the match and get broken.

Still the Norwegian struggled with his timing and the British number five, who has acquired bags of professional experience, was able to take advantage again with his neat groundstrokes that have more penetration on the grass.

The biggest win of his career beckoned and Broady broke at the start of the decider, having anxious moments before holding on for 2-0 and then getting an overrule which allowed him to stay in the third game and gain the assurance of a double break, increasingly using the dropshot to profit from his opponent’s deep-lying position.

From there the world number four’s head began to drop, frustrated by the lack of consistency you would expect from his game in the rest of the year.

Broady held his nerve to close out the decider with a remarkable lack of fuss on Thursday

Silva was also in the box when Broady beat Grand Slam finalist Casper Ruud in second round

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