Andy Murray left a baying Centre Court crowd on tenterhooks as he moved within a set of beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in a late-night Wimbledon thriller to conclude a day in which less-heralded Briton Liam Broady scored a huge shock on Thursday.
The 36-year-old twice former champion, who plays with a partly metal hip joint, rolled back the years to lead 6-7(3) 7-6(2) 6-4 when play was stopped with the 11pm curfew looming.
Few players can engineer drama like the Scot and he had a soccer-style crowd screaming their lungs off as he went toe-to-toe with the fifth-seeded Greek in a match of stunning quality.
After a soggy opening three days of the championships which meant 17 first round matches were still to be completed on day four, the tournament caught fire as the rain finally departed.
Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka, who like Murray has three Grand Slam titles to his name, earlier produced vintage form to knock out 29th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-2 and set up a third-round clash with reigning champion Novak Djokovic.
Women’s title holder Elena Rybakina battled past France’s Alize Cornet 6-2 7-6(2) to reach round three while Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina continued her dream return to the Tour after becoming a mum to edge out 28th seed Elise Mertens.
But the day’s unlikely lad was British wildcard Liam Broady who produced the biggest shock so far in the men’s draw, putting out Norway’s fourth seed Casper Ruud in five sets.
Left-handed journeyman Broady, ranked 142nd in the world, lit up the afternoon with a 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-3 6-0 defeat of Ruud in front of a delirious Centre Court crowd.
Ruud had reached three of the last five Grand Slam finals including at Roland Garros last month whereas Broady’s 10-year professional career had never seen him crack the top 100.
After four closely-fought, if erratic sets, Ruud, who spent the three weeks since reaching the French Open final relaxing away from tennis, looked like he had mentally packed his bags again as Broady ripped through the decider for a memorable win.
“It’s a pretty terrifying, exhilarating experience, coming out on Centre Court at Wimbledon. It’s been my dream since I was five years old,” Broady said in an on-court interview.