French Open: Liam Broady and Cameron Norrie beaten in first round at Roland Garros
Cameron Norrie made it a clean sweep of first-round defeats for Britain in the men's singles after he was beaten by lucky loser Daniel Galan of Colombia
Monday 28 September 2020 22:12, UK
Liam Broady's main-draw debut at the French Open ended with a tough first-round defeat to Czech Jiri Vesely.
The British No 6 secured the biggest payday of his career by coming through qualifying at a Grand Slam for the first time, but joined Andy Murray, Johanna Konta and Dan Evans in falling at the first hurdle.
At a set all and a break up in the third set against Vesely, it looked like Broady might carry on his run, but he was unable to maintain his level against a very solid opponent and fell to a 6-2 5-7 6-3 6-2 defeat.
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After using the first set to find his feet, Broady responded brilliantly in the second and a run of 11 points in a row to finish it saw him level the match.
When he began the third set with an immediate break of the Vesely serve, all the momentum was with the player from Stockport, but a break of the Broady serve in the sixth game proved the turning point.
Vesely extended his run of games to five to win the set and relentless pressure in the fourth was too much for Broady to withstand.
The baton passed on to Norrie as the lone male survivor in the men's draw but the British No 3 looked like he would be in for a trouble-free evening as he raced into a 5-0 lead against Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan.
But Galan gathered himself to take the match to a fifth set and ran out a 4-6 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1 winner, leaving Norrie to join Andy Murray, Dan Evans and Broady through the exit door.
With Johanna Konta also a first-round casualty, Heather Watson is left to fly the British flag when she takes on Fiona Ferro of France on Tuesday.
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