Wawrinka sweeps aside Wimbledon debutant Broom as Watson falls short
Charles Broom plays a shot during his defeat against Stan Wawrinka. Photograph: Andrej Isaković/AFP/Getty Images
Charles Broom’s grand slam tournament debut at the age of 26 lasted only three sets against Stan Wawrinka, the former world No 3, here on Monday, but the British player’s switch from courtside to the playing surface, after many visits to the tournament as a spectator, left him with good reason to see the experience as, in his words, “not losing, but learning”.
Broom had secured a wild card with a fine run of form on the Challenger circuit and started the match as only a marginal underdog with the bookmakers, despite the 153-run gap in the ratings ladder to his Swiss opponent.
There had to be a possibility, after all, that the 12-year age gap between Broom and his Swiss opponent would prove more significant, and for the opening games at least, the Wimbledon debutant held his own against Wawrinka, who was making his 18th attempt to win the only grand slam title missing from his career cv.
Wawrinka had also been no stranger to early exits here in the past. The first of his seven first-round defeats came as long ago as 2005, when his opponent on Monday had just celebrated his seventh birthday, and he has departed at the second hurdle four times.
But Broom’s solid start went to waste in the sixth game, when he lost his serve to love, and the first set followed three games later. Then, having reeled off the first three games in the next, he missed a chance to go a double-break in front in the fourth and later failed to serve out the set at 5-3.
In a nervy opening to the game he slipped to 0-30 and, while he fought back to deuce, an attempted drop volley found the net to give Wawrinka a break-back point and he powered a cross-court winner to regain the initiative.
“I could feel the momentum starting to shift in the game at 5-3, and I knew that was an important one,” Broom said. “I played some good points, just didn’t quite execute. To a certain extent, that’s probably my level, and just exposing myself to those important moments on a bigger stage, I think it’s something I’m going to have to get used to.”
Heather Watson, meanwhile, will hope to spend considerably more time on court with Greet Minnen in the women’s doubles than she managed in the singles, having earlier become the first British player to be knocked out of the championship as she lost 7-5, 6-4 on court 18.
Watson made the worst possible start to what turned out to be an error-strewn first set, as she lost the first eight points to slip to 0-2 with barely five minutes on the clock. She staged a spirited rally to level at 4-4 and was gifted a chance to serve for the set when Minnen served a double-fault on break point, only for Watson to lose her own serve to love a couple of minutes later.
Minnen reeled off the next two games as well to close out the set, and while there were occasional flashes of inspiration from her doubles partner on the other side of the net, the former British No 1 eventually wilted under the strength of Minnen’s forehand in particular.
“Every one,” Watson screamed in frustration as another backhand drifted wide to leave her serving to stay in the match in the second, and the fact that her penultimate point of the match was a Watson double fault summed up her day.
“It’s just such tiny margins and fine details that can make a big difference,” Watson said. “I just wasn’t able to find the court. Greet is a really good friend of mine on tour, we get on very well. I can’t wait to be on the same side of the court with her.”
In a five-set epic on court 16, Britain’s Arthur Fery lost against Germany’s world No 80 Daniel Altmaier. Fery, the world No 247, won the first and third sets but started to struggle physically and took a medical timeout in the fourth set. Altmaier took control in the fourth before securing victory – 4-6, 7-6(6), 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 – in 3hr 43min.