Wimbledon 2022: Katie Boulter leads trio of Brits into third round with win over Karolina Pliskova

Centre Court has not been a popular hunting ground for the Brits in the last 24 hours.

But Katie Boulter avoided the same fate as Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu by overcoming a one-set deficit to knock out No6 seed Karolina Pliskova.

And there were wins for Liam Broady, who overcame No12 seed Diego Schwartzman in a five-set marathon, and Heather Watson, who needed just one game to book her place in the third round.

Wimbledon 2022

Boulter-Pliskova was a repeat of their match from just 10 days earlier and once again the result was the same. As in Eastbourne last week, Pliskova took the first set.

But Boulter, seemingly now free of her injury problems and knocking on the door of the world’s top 100, fought back for a 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory.

Played under the roof because of the threat of rain that never materialised, it marks her first time into the third round and her biggest scalp against last year’s Wimbledon runner-up.

Boulter, who revealed after the win her grandmother had died two days ago, was broken twice in the opening set as Pliskova quickly found her rhythm and there were a series of breaks in the second set as it went to a tiebreak.

In the match, Boulter proved the marginally more clinical at the break points, converting four of six to her Czech opponent’s four from eight. And the Briton got the mini break in the tiebreak to go 3-0 for a lead she never conceded.

In a tight and tense deciding set, she got the telling break in the ninth game and coolly served out the match.

Broady will play in the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time as he recovered from two sets to one down to beat Schwartzman 6-2, 4-6, 0-6, 7-6, 6-1 in arguably the biggest win of his career.

In a remarkable turnaround, he lost 11 straight games from the second to fourth sets, recovering from 3-0 down in the fourth to win a tiebreak and then the deciding set. As a result, he will pocket at least £120,00 in prize money.

Heather Watson will play for a fifth straight day at Wimbledon on Friday after needing just one game to finish off her match against Qiang Wang.

Watson has played every day of the championships because of weather delays but needed little time on court to beat her Chinese opponent 7-5, 6-4 for a place in Wimbledon’s third round for the fourth time in her career.

Harriet Dart’s hopes of becoming a third British woman into round three, however, were quashed in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 loss to No8 seed Jessica Pegula.

Fellow Briton Alastair Gray joined future housemate Ryan Peniston in exiting the second round of Wimbledon in a 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 loss to No11 seed Taylor Fritz.

The British duo are on the lookout for a place to share near SW19, a cause which will be helped by the £78,000 they will have pocketed for their respective opening-round victories.

But the 24-year-old Gray was left to rue missed opportunities in a match in which Fritz always seemed a step ahead without having to raise his game.

The Briton hit a total of 30 unforced errors to 11 by Fritz, who had been knocked out by Gray’s former school friend Jack Draper – the pair having attended a school next to Chelsea’s Cobham training ground – at Queen’s earlier in the month.

Hopes that he could back up his day-two win against Tseng Chun-hsin were given some hope when he broke his American opponent in the second set and had the opportunity to serve for the set and level the match.

But he was broken, lost the subsequent tiebreak and then faltered in the final set to end what had been a promising Wimbledon debut.

In the final game on No.1 Court, Jack Draper showed his huge potential but saw his Wimbledon run end in the second round with defeat by 19th seed Alex De Minaur.

The battle between the former junior finalists saw Australian De Minaur come from a set down to defeat Draper 5-7 7-6 (0) 6-2 6-3 in three hours and two minutes on Court One.

De Minaur joins British girlfriend Katie Boulter, who was watching courtside after her career-best win over Karolina Pliskova, in the third round while Draper should take huge encouragement from what was a fine contest.