The British focus had been on Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu but, in the space of barely three hours on Centre Court as afternoon turned to evening, both their Wimbledon hopes ended prematurely.
A third Wimbledon title had always been a long shot for Murray, but his game was heading in the right direction. For Raducanu, there would be no repeat of her surprise run from a year ago.
The defeats may have briefly deflated the Centre Court crowd but there are plenty of reasons to be positive from a British perspective.
In all, 10 home players made it to the second round of the tournament — the best record since 1984 — and six of them were in action at various stages today. And the hope is that it is the beginning of a British rise, rather than an anomaly of a year.
For Joe Salisbury, Britain’s leading doubles player, who was getting under way in the men’s doubles today, the trick lies in the players around him. Coming through the system, he already had an established Grand Slam winner in Jamie Murray as a benchmark.
“The thing is I’d be playing him in practice, doing well and thinking, ‘why can’t I do this as well, he’s not so different to me’,” said Salisbury. “And right now you see Alastair Gray and Jack Draper, and they’ve got guys like Andy Murray and Cameron Norrie to look up to and maybe practise with. They see them taking a similar path and they’ll be getting that belief of, ‘why can’t I?’
“I don’t think anything major has changed infrastructure-wise, it’s just you’ve got better players lifting people up.”
In a warped way, Covid has proved a benefit for some of the national players trying to make their international breakthrough.
When the first softening of restrictions allowed the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton to re-open its doors to the elite players, it became the only place they could practise. So, players from the Murray brothers to Salisbury and Norrie all converged as one on the hub.
Murray was seen as integral to that operation. While he was focusing on getting his form and fitness back on track, he acted as a hitting partner to his fellow Brits, but also a sage sounding board, with all his experience of three Grand Slam titles, two Olympic golds and a Davis Cup win.
It also created a tighter bond between the players, enhanced by the Battle of Brits competitions created by Jamie Murray. There is an all-British WhatsApp group, on which messages have been exchanged throughout the opening days of Wimbledon of both congratulation and commiseration.
Salisbury said: “It [the WhatsApp group] is actually mostly abuse! Evo [Dan Evans] is probably the worst offender, but it’s all light-hearted stuff.”
Of the 17 British players in the singles draw, 10 needed wildcards but all on merit for their recent results, which has not always been the case.
The national governing body, the LTA, are quietly optimistic, but their performance director, Michael Bourne, was reluctant to herald the dawn of a new era for British tennis.
“We’re starting to see the green shoots of success, but I don’t think we should get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “British tennis has always had very good players, but it’s hard to sustain that at the top level. We know we’ve got work to do in order to consistently produce the talent that British tennis expects, but we’re happy with the shoots we’ve seen so far.”
Central to that is the pro scholarship programme, targeting players aged 16 to 24 with the best chance of making the world’s top 100. Draper, Harriet Dart, Katie Boulter and Paul Jubb are among the players on the programme, offered coaching, grants and medical back-up.
Then there is the newer tennis performance competitions calendar, which has helped the rankings of players such as Gray and Sonay Kartal this year, as well as boosting them financially.
There are clear men’s and women’s programmes, the former led by British Davis Cup captain Leon Smith, the latter by Iain Bates, who has played a key role with Raducanu.
And immaterial of how the Brits fare for the rest of this year’s Wimbledon, the aim is for Britain to become a leading tennis nation by 2028.
“It’s the global results and consistency that’s been the most satisfying thing and it’s just really pleasing for the players more than anything else,” said Bourne.
“Everything’s starting to come together. We know what it’s going to take to get where we want to. We’re not complacent, there’s still a lot of work to do but we’re pointing in the right direction.”
