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LONDON — Liam Broady thrilled a partisan Centre Court crowd Thursday as he became the first British man to defeat a top-four seed at Wimbledon since 2013 with his upset victory over No. 4 Casper Ruud.
After winning the first set, Broady, a wild card who is ranked No. 142 in the word, dropped the next two sets before rallying for a 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory — the biggest of his career.
“When I went to bed last night, I was thinking about what to say if I won the match,” Broady told the crowd during his on-court interview. “I really don’t know what to say now.”
Ruud had reached three of the past five Grand Slam finals, but the Norwegian had struggled at Wimbledon in his three previous appearances.
After three days of action at the All England Club were affected by rain, organizers were optimistic of getting in a full day of tennis Thursday. Only eight matches were completed Tuesday, with all of those being played on either Centre Court or No. 1 Court — the only ones covered by roofs.
Because of the all the disruption, there were a handful of first-round matches being played on Day 4. Normally, the first Thursday of the tournament would wrap up the second round.
Also among the winners on Thursday was Stan Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion from Switzerland who beat No. 29-seeded Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the third round.
Wawrinka, 38, who won his major titles at the other three Grand Slam tournaments, will next face Novak Djokovic — the 23-time Grand Slam champion who is going for his record-tying eighth title at Wimbledon. That match is scheduled to be played Friday on Centre Court.
“There’s zero opportunity to win Wimbledon for me, I think,” said Wawrinka, who reached the quarterfinals at the All England Club in 2014 and 2015. “I’m playing better each match, and as I say, I think it’s an honor to play Novak here. I was missing that on my career to play him in the Grand Slam in Wimbledon. That’s the last I never played him, and it’s going to be a difficult challenge.
“Hopefully I can make a competitive match, but if you will look at recent results, I don’t really stand a chance.”
Alexander Zverev, who reached the 2020 US Open final but missed most of last season after injuring his ankle in the French Open semifinals, finally got on court and beat Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer 6-4, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) in the first round.
The 19th-seeded German has twice reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, including in 2021. He again reached the French Open semifinals this year.
Andrey Rublev overcame an opening-set blip to beat Aslan Karatsev 6-7(4) 6-3 6-4 7-5 in an all-Russian clash to claim his 50th Grand Slam match victory.