Liam Broady doesn’t mind keeping his feet on clay as he bags French Open main draw spot
Liam Broady, one of several touring pros based at the Team Bath Sports Training Village, has bagged a spot in the main draw of the men’s singles at the French Open – his first appearance at this Grand Slam, played on clay in the country’s capital city.
He overturned the ranking form book to beat Australia’s Marc Polmans in his final qualifying match by 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
After the match the clearly delighted world no. 206 left-hander, coached at the University of Bath by Dave Sammel, spoke with Mike Dickson, the Daily Mail’s tennis correspondent and said:
“I think that playing a lot more aggressive on the forehand dictated it. I didn’t start very well but towards the end of the match I wanted to put my game out there on the court and if I was going to miss out, I wanted it to be in the right way.
“Now I’ve got to keep building, I’ve got to keep plugging. I’ve done a lot of work with Dave (Sammel) on my serve and forehand and it’s paying off”.
Early in the match Broady trailled 1-3 and 2-4 after being broken. He recovered to level at 4-4 and had points to finish the set at 6-5 before taking the opener in the tie-break.
In a rain interrupted match he signalled his ambition on his return to court by breaking the Australian in the first game and later served two aces to give himself a 3-1 lead and the cushion to go on to win the second set and the match.
The result gave him one of his biggest tennis pay days but he underlined to Dickson that whilst the money is ‘pretty big”, it’s more about being ambitious as a player.
