Brits Katie Boulter and Liam Broady knocked out of Wimbledon third round

Two of Britain's rising tennis stars have been knocked out of the third round of Wimbledon.

A drained Katie Boulter admitted she ran out of steam as her fine run ended in disappointing fashion with a one-sided defeat by Harmony Tan, while Liam Broady likewise struggled against Australian Alex De Minaur.

Boulter produced the best result of her career by upsetting last year’s runner-up Karolina Pliskova on Thursday but was unable to get into the match against Tan, who has built on her first-round victory over Serena Williams brilliantly and is through to the last 16 at a grand slam for the first time.

Tan, ranked three places higher than Boulter at 115, was in control from the start and eased to a 6-1 6-1 victory in just 51 minutes.

Boulter went into Wimbledon on the back of strong performances in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne but has been enduring a tough time off court and was in tears during her on-court interview on Thursday after revealing her grandmother died earlier this week.

Speaking after her defeat on Saturday, the 25-year-old said: “I think I’m just a little bit emotionally drained, if I’m honest. It’s been a long few weeks. I’m not going to even talk about this week. I think this week was the cherry on top."

Wimbledon organisers faced criticism for not scheduling Boulter on a bigger court after her exploits against Pliskova, and there were plenty of empty seats on Court Two when play began at 11am.

Tan felt the decision helped her, saying: “When you play a Brit on Centre Court, I think there is a lot of people for her. I like to play on a small court.”

Boulter had no complaints, though, adding: “You’re supposed to put the best matches there are out there on Centre Court and on Court One. We’ve got Iga [Swiatek] who is out there on an I don’t know how many match winning streak. I would never expect to be put ahead of players like that.”

Boulter might have sensed it would not be her day when, in her first service game, she broke a string and saw two Tan shots hit the top of the net.

If the Frenchwoman had a slice of luck, though, she more than earned her superiority in the rest of the match.

While Boulter was happily able to trade pace with the flat-hitting Pliskova, this was a very different assignment, with Tan chipping the ball back and mixing up angles and spins.

Despite the drubbing, Boulter had a smile on her face in her post-match press conference as she reflected on the best month of her career.

“I’ve got absolutely loads of positives,” she said.

“Many come from a physical and mental place. I know I can compete with these players week in, week out at this level. That for me is the biggest thing out of everything...

"Going forward, if I can kind of use this momentum, I really feel like I’m going to be in a great place by the end of the year. I’ve just got to stay healthy, fit and fresh.”

The frustration for Boulter and Broady is that the ATP and WTA’s decision to remove points this year means her run will not be rewarded by a rise in the rankings from 118 that could have seen her make it into the main draw of the US Open, while Broady will drop points, despite his wins.

Despite bowing out of the Championships with a 6-3 6-4 7-5 loss to Alex De Minaur, the 28-year-old did manage to break the Australian's serve.

The match saw the Stockport left-hander whip up the crowd into a frenzy and ensured it contributed towards a fun experience on the second biggest venue in SW19 having been given a bagel by Milos Raonic on the same court four years ago.

Broady said: “In the past I’ve been on Court One and Centre and it’s probably been more of a negative experience because I’ve not felt like I’ve been able to express myself.

“I mean, I remember I played Raonic on Court One. I think it was 5-0-1. I felt like I wanted the ground to swallow me up. I felt just awful. Whereas today I felt like I was playing well enough to be able to try and get the crowd involved.

“The crowd were pretty incredible at the end. I mean, they helped me get the break back in the third as much as I got the break back.”

When the 28-year-old stepped out to play in the third round of a grand slam for the first time, he had already spent seven hours on the grass following five-set wins over Lukas Klein and Diego Schwartzman earlier in the week.

A rapid opening set in which De Minaur lost only three points on serve suggested a rapid conclusion but Broady continued to show his trademark fighting spirit and recovered from an early break in the third.

It was also a tightening of the strings of his racket which contributed towards a back-and-forth final set where the world number 132 produced several classy drop shots.

“I probably ended up getting into the rhythm of it once I was a break down in the third and obviously against someone like Alex, he’s a world-class grass-courter, it’s a little bit too late,” Broady admitted.

“I sent a racket off to get it done a couple of pounds tighter. The first couple sets I felt like the ball was flying off my strings a bit.

“The racket only came back once I was a break down in the third. I brought it out and I just felt a lot more comfortable playing, felt like the ball was doing what I was trying to tell it to do. Like I said, the change was probably a little bit too late.”

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In a horrible twist of fate, Broady will actually drop in the rankings due to the lack of points on offer at Wimbledon following the All England Club’s decision to ban Russian and Belarussian athletes.

The Briton shrugged off the disappointment and turned his focus on to his next major goal of appearing in the US Open main draw.

Broady, who has played in the first round of the three other grand slams and was a runner-up as a junior in New York, added: “US Open main draw has been a dream of mine for a long time.

“I have probably had the least success there in my pro career. But in my junior career, it was one of the ones I made the finals at.

“From the age of like 18 to 23, 24, I played pretty much like nine, 10 months a year on the US hard court circuit, so I do feel pretty comfortable over there.

“The conditions are amazing. You stay in Manhattan, you’re on the bus to Flushing Meadows every day. The venue is incredible. Obviously it would be nice to hang around there a little bit more than I usually do.”