Expectations are high when a young prospect makes Junior Grand Slam finals. Those expectations are only amplified when said prospect is from a nation with as rich a tennis history as Great Britain.
For Liam Broady, a run to the second round at Wimbledon in 2015 catapulted him to a career-best No. 158 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. It came after reaching his first ATP Challenger Tour final in the preceding November where he had fallen to James Duckworth in Charlottesville.
Progress since his been jittery at best and the 23 year old Stockport native is the first to admit it. But a first Challenger final in three years in Aptos, California, on Sunday, went a long way to restoring belief that a revitalised focus was reaping rewards.
Broady went down in straight sets to Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik in the final. It was an impressive run, though, having won through qualifying to get there.
“I’ve always believed that I’m capable of competing and living with these guys. It’s telling me my work’s paying off and I’m back,” Broady told USTA Pro Circuit broadcaster Mike Cation. “I’ve been here before. I was probably overwhelmed the first time around but I feel comfortable with these guys and ... it’s just showing people what I can do.”
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Broady strung together seven straight match wins for the loss of just one set en route to the decider. Better still, the surprise run shot his Emirates ATP Ranking up 80 spots to No. 256, which meant he could avoid having to play Futures events and coming through Challengers qualifying.
“I was actually going to play a $25,000 [Futures event] in Illinois this week. Dave said ‘Do you want to play qualies in Aptos because it’s looking so strong or do you want to play a 25 in Illinois?’,” Broady said. “I said ‘Dave, look, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to carry on playing tennis if I go to a Futures in Illinois on my own when I know Aptos is going on because it’s one of the best tournaments that I play’ so he said ‘OK, I trust you to go play it’. I think the tennis gods responded and gave me a final out of this.”
The Brit admitted to frustrations as he made the transition from juniors to the professional ranks. His ranking was not rising anywhere near the rate he wanted it to, or as fast as the British public expected it to given his standout results, which took him as high as No. 2 in the junior world rankings.
“I’ve always felt pressured to get there as quick as I can, especially seeing my peers getting there so fast and kids younger than me now like Zverev, Kyrgios even Shapovalov,” Broady said. “I was playing Shapovalov a couple of months ago on the Challengers and it put such pressure on me not seeing my ranking going up as quick as those guys.
“But one of the big things for me over the last year or so is learning everyone’s path is different. Everybody gets to where they want to get to at different times. You can’t rush that. I think that’s one of the things that’s kind of matured in me.”