THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 30, 2022

Liam Broady

Press Conference

L. BROADY/D. Schwartzman

6-2, 4-6, 0-6, 7-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Great win today. Share some of your thoughts.

LIAM BROADY: Really happy with it. I mean, the first time having played two five-set matches in a row. To have come through, and against Diego, as well. I said it after the first round, he's one of the fittest guys on tour. To have managed to get him in five sets, that's kind of what he does.

Yeah, really happy with it. First time in third round of Wimbledon. Good day (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. It's a shame that Wimbledon doesn't have ranking points this year. Is there a part of you now that wishes you could have the ranking points?

LIAM BROADY: Yeah (laughter). How many points would it have been for third round?

Q. (Indiscernible.)

LIAM BROADY: Which would be huge. That would be, I think, my highest jump in points score.

Q. Take you pretty close to...

LIAM BROADY: ...top hundred. Yeah, and I'm losing 45 points from last year. I think I'll probably drop back now to 150.

But that's kind of been the story of my year a little bit. I mean, have had good results but not quite having the points I felt I deserved. I beat two top-hundred players for the first time in Phoenix, one of them being Goffin and Rinderknech. Made semis there. Obviously it was only a challenger, the points weren't as big as they could have been.

Qualifying in Australia, I'm not sure if the points for players who qualify for slams are maybe as good as they should be. There are usually challengers on during the weeks of slam quallies. Guys who are 300 don't play anyone ranked inside 250 that week, and can make 80 points. I think it's like 25 points for last-round quallies. It's not great.

I mean, that's been the story with tennis for a long time, for lots of different reasons. I'm just grateful to have made the third round of Wimbledon, to be honest. I'd play Wimbledon for no points and no prize money. At least I get the prize money (smiling).

Q. You mentioned the physicality of it. Have you been particularly focusing on that or has it been a gradual progression?

LIAM BROADY: I think this year, I mean, in previous years I felt it physically a lot worse. Like the first year I played when I beat Marinko in five, I had a day off the next day, then I played Goffin the day after. I was absolutely knackered. We had a really high-level first set and I was just gone.

I do think a large part of it is having been there before, having done it before. I played a fair few five-setters now. You kind of get used to it I guess.

For me a large part of it is being tired and just being able to stay focused. That mental endurance, which is kind of what I was saying after the first round as well, and it happened today. I think that's the great thing about a five-set match, there are such huge swings of momentum and so much can happen. It's not just done after one swing. There can be two, three, four swings. It just becomes a lot longer of a struggle.

Q. You talk of swings and momentum. You lost 11 games.

LIAM BROADY: That was a big one, yeah.

Q. What was it? Was it holding serve at 3-nil down?

LIAM BROADY: I actually said on court I felt a little bit -- I changed my tactics a bit. I actually felt like I was playing pretty well from the back.

I was probably trying to play too heavily into his backhand. His backhand above his shoulder is brilliant. Like I said on court, he beat Rafa on clay. You can't do that without having a good shoulder-high backhand. I'm not hitting that forehand as heavy as Rafa does either.

I actually think his forehand is probably better from his backhand corner, and from that mid-court. I started trying to play it a hell of a lot more into his forehand corner. It's the case with a lot of guys that prefer that mid-court forehand, actually if you go straight into the forehand, they struggle a little bit more with it.

Obviously on the grass as well with my backhand being as flat as it is, it helps a lot. I felt like that started to allow me to get my foot into the door again, start to work my way back into it.

With Diego, he served pretty well at times today, but he isn't the biggest server out there. Same as me really. That's why there were so many long rallies. We've always just got to go toe-to-toe from the back.

Q. It was the game of punch and counter-punch. What was the moment when you thought you were going to win it? When you won the tiebreak?

LIAM BROADY: Not when I won the tiebreak. To be honest, I've played so many matches where I've won a set to go to a decider and just switched off and been broken and gone down 3-Love in whatever.

Actually that happened in my first round against Klein. I went 1-Love down in the fifth, a break down, new balls came out, the next game straightaway, and I thought, Great, I'm going home already. I was obviously very aware of that.

One thing I would say is feeling as fatigued as I felt, it kind of helped a bit with, like, nerves and stuff like that. I just kind of was getting on with it because I didn't have the energy to be nervous in a sense. It was kind of a good thing.

Q. On your backhand, it's rare to have a backhand so flat. How did that shot come to be? Has anyone tried to make you hit more topspin?

LIAM BROADY: I feel like it's getting more common now, right? There's a few lefties that do it. Mannarino, Norrie. I'm sure there's maybe one other that I've seen.

I think it's kind of one of those things that kind of develops naturally. It is effective against the righty to be able to rush them into the forehand. I'm not sure if a coach would ever teach that as a shot, to hit a backhand like that. As you say, it would be more with spin.

I've had a few coaches try to do that but it never really stuck. Because to be honest, I've never really received coaching on my backhand because I always had ultimate confidence in it. I always felt like I could kind of, with no spin, kind of hit it where I wanted to hit it.

For a long time my backhand was probably my strongest shot as well. It's just kind of developed like that over the years and evolved to be as effective as possible against who I'm playing.

Q. I know you like your social media, in particular your banter with Andy. I'm guessing you'll not miss this chance to message him.

LIAM BROADY: Yeah, I'll probably send him a text. I was thinking about sending him a text a few minutes ago, to be honest. I've not got one from him yet. I'll probably send him one.

Whenever I have a good win, I tend to text him and say, Have you seen any results of note today?

But, yeah, he had a tough one yesterday so it might not be appropriate to send that one today.

But like you say, I mean, Andy has always been probably one of my toughest critics, but he's also been one of the greatest advisers that I've had.

It's easy for people to say, You have to believe in yourself more, you're a great player. But when one of the greatest players of all time says that to you, it carries a lot more weight and does kind of strike home a lot harder.

Q. Now that you've lasted longer in Wimbledon than one of the greatest players...

LIAM BROADY: I'm not going to even go down that road. He'll probably just send me his tour wins across his career and stuff and then send me mine (laughter).

Q. You mentioned the tactical switch late on. If this match had been two weeks later, Dave could have told you that in the second set, he'd have worked it out for you. Does that come into your brain, that you're going to lose that advantage? What do you think of that change?

LIAM BROADY: To be honest, like I'm -- me and Dave have had a few conversations about this. Once I'm on court, I actually, even with the on-court coaching stuff in a few weeks' time, I probably wouldn't want that much of a tactical analysis.

I'm very much an overthinker myself. I'd almost prefer that to just bounce things off him, just say this, that, blah, blah, blah, get his opinion rather than be told what to do, be very regimented.

It's been that way my whole career, my whole life as a person. I don't respond very well to authority. I have had coaches in the past that I've told to do one, if they've tried to give me a little tactic on the court.

But obviously it is rife in tennis, right? Multiple players get coached on court. There have been rumors for years. Obviously it is a leveler.

We tried it in Australian Open quallies a few years back. I think is it going to be the same again, where you can get coached down one end? Yeah, so I actually played Berrettini second round of quallies. We were doing that. It was actually fine, to be honest.

I suppose for the big matches it would probably make for better watching as well if you can see what the players and coaches interactions are like. I guess we'll see.

Q. You mentioned at least the prize money is still there. 120,000, I believe.

LIAM BROADY: Is that what it is?

Q. Any thoughts what you will treat yourself to?

LIAM BROADY: I might just withdraw it all and just like lie on it (laughter).

No, no idea to be honest. I'm getting a bit older now so I need to start looking for somewhere to live other than my parents' house. That could go towards that a little bit, as well.

But, I mean, at the end of the day, as nice as the prize money is, I'm not playing those matches, I'm not serving at 5-1 and thinking, Fuck, I've got 120 grand here on the line. I'm serving and thinking I'm about to beat Diego Schwartzman. It is a nice bonus, but we'll have to see.

Q. Your parents will be happy about that.

LIAM BROADY: Yeah, exactly. I'm sure my mum and dad will be buzzing. I pay the board and all that, but maybe it will go up a bit now (laughter).

Q. Your thoughts on the up-and-coming Brits, Katie Boulter. Is this a turning point for British tennis?

LIAM BROADY: Yeah, I think it kind of played on my mind a little bit yesterday, having seen -- I feel like sometimes people are a bit harsh on some of the British players. That's just the way it is, right? People want the best.

I saw some of the things online about Emma and Andy's results. I mean, at the end of the day tennis is a lottery. That's why people watch it. It's never a guarantee as to who's going to win. Those guys both came out against in-form players and sadly didn't get the job done.

I kind of wanted to get a little result for the British players myself to give us something to hold onto. Obviously I saw Bolts did, as well, which is brilliant for her. She was top hundred, has dealt with a few injuries. I don't know if she's on her back there. I don't know what her ranking is. I have no doubt if she can stay fit, she'll be back up there.

The talent that we've got within the younger British players now kind of speaks for itself. Paul Jubb's performance against Kyrgios was fantastic and mature beyond his years. Peniston has had a breakout season over the grass. Jay Clarke is doing well as ever. He's 150 and pushing on. Ali Gray, he was a break up in a couple of his sets against Fritz today, who is top 20 I think. We've got a lot of players coming through.

I think they'll be around for a long time, as well, so I think it's looking good.

Q. You mentioned the ranking. Big picture do you feel like you're getting somewhere? Also do you try not to think about the top hundred thing?

LIAM BROADY: I feel like I've wanted to be top hundred for so long that it's kind of lost its meaning now. It's just words. I mean, it was the same as my first challenger win when I finally gave up on winning a challenger. I've lost eight or nine finals in a row or something. When I finally gave up on it, it happened. It was nice.

I went home and my family had got me a cake and everything. I'd been trying for 10 years to win a challenger. It was a big deal. I was kind of like, I'm kind of over it. It's happened, but I've been over it for about five years now. I kind of feel similar with the top hundred thing.

But at the end of the day, whether you like it or not, that is seen as a tour player if you're top hundred, you are a tour player.

I don't know, it would be nice to be top hundred. I can't lie about that, especially for the main draw of the slams and a fair few 250s. If I'm good enough, I'll be top hundred. If I'm not, I won't be.

Q. You mentioned a lot of the British players who are doing well. You didn't mention Jack Draper. He could be your next opponent.

LIAM BROADY: Really? No, I mean, I suppose Jack doesn't need talking about. Some of the wins he's had over the last few months. He won three or four challengers in a row, which is ridiculously good. Normal tennis players don't do that. He's 20-odd years old. He's had some big results already on the grass this season. He beat Fritz, beat Schwartzman in straights.

He's got a huge game. He's very confident on the grass. He's confident in front of the crowd. He's a big-match player. He's got everything going for him. A good-looking boy as well. He's tall.

But I fancy myself against anybody, to be honest. I've practiced with Jack a lot so we know each other's games well. But it's always different in a match. Hopefully for Jack, he gets through. I mean, it's never nice to play a Brit. The more Brits we can get deeper in the tournament, the better. It would be a good showing, I think.

Q. Could be on a show court as well.

LIAM BROADY: Yeah. That would be nice. A little bit nerve wracking, but why not?

Q. If it's Alex instead, Alex de Minaur, presumably Katie split loyalties...

LIAM BROADY: Would she sit in his box? I'd hope not (laughter). I won't judge her if she sits in Demon's box. She kind of has to, doesn't she?

But, no, I mean, I actually played Demon in Eastbourne last year. I know his game going pretty well. He's a fantastic player. He's very good on the grass, won one or two of the grass court challengers before. The deeper he goes in the tournament, the harder he would be to stop. Hopefully Jack can stop him today so I don't have to in a few days' time.

Q. Tire him out by doing so.

LIAM BROADY: Absolutely. Five- or six-hour match would be good.