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Glenys Furness
Photo by BPI/REX/Shutterstock Great Britain's Liam Broady beats Jared Donaldson from USA in 3 sets to reach the final round of Qualifying Australian Open Tennis 2015 Thursday Qualifying and Practice Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - 15 Jan 2015

Liam Broady runner up in Las Vegas Challenger, heads back up the rankings

Glenys Furness
Tennis

By Glenys Furness

  • Liam Broady makes third challenger title of 2017
  • Lost to the fourth seed in straight sets
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, USA – Liam Broady made third challenger final of 2017, ended a good event as runner up. En route to the final, the Brit only lost one set.

 

Brit of the Week

Liam Broady entered Las Vegas unseeded, and his first opponent was a lucky loser. Alex Rybakov came out fighting to try and take advantage of the spot. The American kept with Broady during the first set, not giving anything away. Eventually a tiebreak ensued and the Brit won through to take the set. In the second Broady broke the American serve and held on to book a place in the second round 7-6(5), 6-3.

The second round was a battle of the Brits as Broady was against the second seed Cameron Norrie. Norrie and Broady were unable to break serve and again a tiebreak ensued. Broady again edged the breaker to leave the seed needing to win the remaining two sets. Norrie was unable to stop the non seed from taking the match as Broady broke to take the match 7-6(5), 6-4.

In the quarter-final Broady was against the eighth seed Reilly Opelka, the American was up for the fight and forced a tiebreak in the first set. Broady could not stay with the eighth seed in the breaker as Opelka ran away with tiebreak to seal the set. The second set again saw the players going toe to toe and another breaker arrived. This time Broady edged it and the match was level. The final set saw the Brit back on top as he broke the American to seal a semi-final spot 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 6-4.

The semi-final saw Broady against Evan King another American. The Brit managed to get a break of serve in the first set against King and this was all Broady needed to clinch the set. In the second the American fought harder and pushed the Brit towards a tiebreak, however Broady was not having this and secured a break of serve right at the end to secure the final spot 6-4, 7-5.

In the final the Brit was against the fourth seed Stefan Kozlov and made the perfect start. Breaking the American serve Broady sealed the first set. However Kozlov was not going down without a fight and took the Brit all the way to the end of the set, before finally breaking right at the end of the set. The final set saw the American break Broady at the start and the Brit never got back into the match. 6-3, 5-7, 4-6.

With the points earned this week, Broady has moved up another 27 points, sitting just outside the Top 160. He has a career high of No. 158.

Challenger & ITF round up

Norrie lost in the second round of Las Vegas to Broady

Jay Clarke lost in the first round of Las Vegas 6-7(2), 4-6

Brydan Klein lost in the second round of Las Vegas 7-6(2), 3-6, 5-7.

Katie Boulter lost in the semi-final of Obidos 2-6, 6-3, 1-6

Luke Bambridge lost in semi-final of Harlingen 6-3, 6-7(5), 2-6

Mirabelle Njoze lost in the second round of Hammamet 5-7, 6-7(3)

Laura Robson lost in the first round of Suzhou 6-3, 4-6, 5-7

Next Week Brits play in Vienna, Basel, Brest,  & Traralgon