Naomi Broady enjoys return to Wimbledon after mixed doubles run comes to an end

NAOMI BROADY said she still thoroughly enjoyed her return to Wimbledon despite a quarter-final exit in the mixed doubles, writes Jack Lacey-Hatton.

Stockport’s Broady has been a mainstay on the ITF circuit since 2005. She reached the third round of the doubles at Wimbledon in 2016, the quarters of the mixed doubles in 2014, and has twice reached the second round of the US Open doubles.

Her wildcard entry with French partner Jeremy Chardy lit up the early rounds of the mixed doubles.

After a stunning 6-3, 7-5 win against the tenth seeds in the previous round, the British doubles number four and Chardy, were up against the home pairing of Harriet Dart and Joe Salisbury on court one.

They made a fine start, breaking the Dart serve to eventually win the opening set, 6-4.

The pair, who had never previously played together before this tournament, were visibly enjoying the match, with a decent sized crowd on the show court making for a great atmosphere.

However Salisbury, a man in-form after winning the French Open mixed doubles, and his partner were resilient and edged the second set 4-6, to take it to a decider.

Both sides had chances with break points in a closely fought third set.

Eventually with Broady serving to stay in the match, they came unstuck, losing 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.

After the match, Broady said: “I really enjoyed the match despite the result. Jeremy and I have had so much fun in this tournament.

“Even though we lost tonight, we had some great moments and I was constantly laughing throughout the match. I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience this year.

“When your partner is Jeremy Chardy it helps me a lot. Some of the points I feel, I just had to cover my tramline because he had the whole rest of the court!

“He is a great player and I think we made a great team this year. I think we had a great chance against anyone, it just wasn’t to be. I have learned a lot this week.

“I am going to take some more time off now just to see if I can sort my ankle injury. I am still struggling with movement at times.

“I play with an ankle brace on, but the mental side of the injury is hard. Learning to trust my ankle again is taking time.

“Today I found it quite difficult to move to the left side, which obviously for tennis isn’t a good thing. My dad describes it as treading water.

“So I think I need to get to the bottom of it and get it sorted out. Hopefully I’ll be back for the US season at some point.

“I don’t know if we will play together at a slam again, just because I know Jeremy’s coach doesn’t even like him playing too much men’s doubles. He is trying to get him to play less matches!

“I think he’ll be well wanted in the mixed doubles anyway at the slams going forward.”

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