Murray loses to Tsitsipas at Wimbledon, Norrie and Broady also out

Going into Friday late afternoon, there were three British men left at Wimbledon. By the end of the night, the number was zero.

Andy Murray succumbed to Stefanos Tsitsipas despite leading two sets to one when it was suspended on Thursday night. Cameron Norrie was a big favorite over Chris Eubanks but lost in four sets. Liam Broady, who upset Casper Ruud in round two, found himself as an underdog again in round three but still had a good chance to knock off a slumping Denis Shapovalov. Instead, could not maintain a set advantage and fell in four.

“I’m obviously very disappointed just now,” Murray admitted on the heels of his 7-6(3), 6-7(2), 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 loss to Tsitsipas. “Yeah, obviously you never know how many opportunities you’re going to get to play here. The defeats maybe feel a bit tougher. But, to be honest, every year that Wimbledon’s not gone how I would like, it’s been hard.”

For Norrie, his 2022 Wimbledon campaign went extremely well. The lefty made a run all the way to the semis before bowing out to Novak Djokovic. This time around, Norrie exited in the second round with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(3) loss to Eubanks. Thus continues an amazing surge for Eubanks, who just recently secured his first ATP title on the grass of Mallorca.

But, in his own words, that wasn’t as big as this.

“Biggest win of my career, no question, by far,” the former Georgia Tech commented on getting the best of the TCU product. “Considering the moment, considering the stage, who I was playing, where I played him–by far the biggest win of my career.”

Eubanks started the season ranked 123rd in the world and could be in the top 40 even if he loses on Saturday. But he is not getting caught up in the success–at least not yet.

“I think finally when I’m able to land in Atlanta, get home, get settled in, that’s when I can really say, ‘wow.’ Get back into my familiar settings, whether that’s training at Tech or going in the gym again, the same gym I work in. I think that’s when things will start to settle in. Right now it’s just kind of like, ‘all right, next match, let’s keep going, let’s see what else we can do.”

There is nothing else the Brits can do in the men’s draw, and only Katie Boulter is alive on the women’s side.

Nonetheless, Broady is still bullish on the state of British tennis.

“I think the men’s is obviously in a fantastic state at the moment,” the 29-year-old said after going down to Shapovalov 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, 7-5. “Obviously with Jack (Draper) not playing, I think that’s such a shame because I think he could have done really well this year. He’s improving all the time. I think he’s going to have a breakout Wimbledon at some point. It’s just a matter of time. I think Cam could have easily gone deep. Andy could have easily gone deep. Dan Evans, he’s a bit low on confidence at the moment, but he could have easily gone deep in the tournament.

“The women’s side, maybe some of the girls didn’t have the Wimbledon they’d hoped to after some of the performances they’ve put in over the course of the grass-court season.

“That’s tennis at the end of the day.”

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.