ROTHESAY INTERNATIONAL

June 27, 2023

Liam Broady

Devonshire Park

Press Conference

L. BROADY/J. Choinski

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Liam. Into the second round here at Eastbourne again. How would you rate your performance today?

LIAM BROADY: I think I'd probably say like a 7 out of 10. I'm not sure you can, especially in Eastbourne, you know, with the way that the wind can pick up here, it was really blustery today. Wasn't as windy as yesterday. I feel like especially on center courts around the world, if the wind picks up, it can go in all directions.

I think myself and Jan both really struggled with that. Obviously it played into my hands. Even though Jan has a big serve, to play him on a grass court, and I think his best surface is probably the clay and he's also pretty good on the hard as well, I think with a bit of practice he'll be excellent on the grass as well, of course. But for today I'm just glad to have got through it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Big opportunity this tournament, in a way, because the field's not as strong as some other events. Have you got quite a lot of ambition here?

LIAM BROADY: Yeah, definitely. I think it's a difficult one. Like you say, it is weaker than some of the buildup tournaments, but I feel like it's still strong compared to some of the other 250s. I mean, I lost in quallies at Banja Luka, but I'd have to check the draws to be 100% sure, but I didn't feel like that was as strong as it is here.

Obviously de Minaur pulling out weakens the draw. He's a fantastic grass courter, and I think he won here last year, right? I think?

THE MODERATOR: Few years ago.

LIAM BROADY: I think so. Oh, was it a few years?

But definitely, I think the week before a slam for lower-ranked players at a 250 is a big opportunity. A lot of those guys decide not to play that would play Queen's and stuff.

And you always seem to get, in the men's and the women's draws, a few lucky losers, because players will do well at Birmingham and Queen's and say, right, I want to get ready for Wimbledon, which obviously happened -- well, I played a qualifer, Lucky Loser, I guess, so yeah.

Q. Obviously after winning yesterday, how important was that for today?

LIAM BROADY: Yeah. I think the main thing to take away from yesterday was, again, how bad, well, I personally was in the wind yesterday. So it was good because then I had to kind of recalibrate my expectations for the standard of tennis I was able to put on the court.

I actually thought Jonny O'Mara played fantastic in the doubles yesterday, and he said to me after the match, he said, I always seem to play well in the wind because everybody expects you to play rubbish, so there is no expectations. I thought, okay, I'm gonna try that now.

But obviously it was a lot windier yesterday. I did at least kind of feel prepared for today after the wind yesterday. And I know in previous years the wind here really gets up to 30, 40 miles an hour. So I should count myself lucky, to be honest.

Q. You either have Mikael or Botic in the next round. Any preference for...

LIAM BROADY: I have played both of them before, actually. I have played Mikael, I think it was last year in Vancouver. He took me down in three sets. I mean, he's a real solid baseliner, amazing athlete. Never gives up on a point or when I played him anyway. I have not really seen him play much other times.

Botic, a big hitter, huge forehand, huge serve, very talented guy. Again, played him a few times.

I think at this level, I don't know what both their rankings are, are they both around like 50 in the world or something, I guess? Toss of the coin. I guess both difficult for different reasons.

To be honest, I don't really know what either of them are like on the grass. That's kind of the other thing to remember in these tournaments is that that kind of throws a bit of a spanner in the mixer sometimes.

Hopefully whoever I plays doesn't like the grass, basically (smiling).

Q. Watching you play doubles with Jonny yesterday, I have never seen someone talk so much on a doubles court as Jonny. It feels like he was almost coaching you and he's also got a little bit of coaching work at the moment as well. What's he like as a doubles partner/coach? What do you think he will bring to the coaching role?

LIAM BROADY: Yeah, I was actually kind of worried. Jonny's like one of those annoyingly talented guys. He's an incredible golfer, obviously always been a very talented tennis player. Going into Surbiton, I was kind of worried that -- obviously he was doing the coaching stuff with Andy, and he was hardly hitting. I was thinking, jeez, man, what have I got myself in for? This is going to be absolute shambles (smiling).

Then we won Surbiton. He's been absolutely great, to be honest. Obviously the more matches we play, the more comfortable and confident he gets. I actually thought he played great against Evo and Lloyd last week. I thought he was great again this week.

I kind of let Jonny take the lead a bit, because I don't know much about Louis' sort of system and how the dubs guys play. I kind of said to Louis and to Jonny, Any tips that you can give me, kind of about positioning and little simple things, the more the better. They have both kind of given me little tips to help.

You know, I let him call pretty much all the plays on the serve and return, because again, he knows the patterns that the dubs guys do and why they do it. Whereas it's pretty -- well, the stuff they do, I was totally unaware of, to be honest, which I kind of understand why my record in doubles before has been pretty crap, to be honest, yeah.

Q. In terms of a motivator, just the little things, dominate on second serve, do you think he sort of keyed into that somehow?

LIAM BROADY: Well, I don't know. I mean, I've always got on with him really well. Like you say, when he's in the right space on the court, he's a really positive guy and very bubbly. I think he's a bit of a showman, as well, like he likes to play up to the crowd, which is a fantastic thing for a tennis player to have, because then in the bigger matches he really comes to the fore.

I'm not sure if he'd be like that with Andy on court. I think Andy would probably tell him to get lost (smiling).

But from what I'm hearing, he's doing a good job with Andy. I think that's obviously why Andy is trying to bring him on board. I'm interested to see how it goes. I'm going to try to persuade him to play some more doubles with me as well. We'll have to see. Coach Andy Murray or play doubles with Liam Broady? It's a tough decision, isn't it? (Laughter.)

Q. Speaking of Andy, it's been ten years since he won Wimbledon for the first time. Curious what you remember about seeing it yourself, and as a young Liam Broady, what impact did that have on you?

LIAM BROADY: What year did he first win Wimby?

Q. 2013.

LIAM BROADY: 2013. I'm trying to think. 2013. I think I missed Wimbledon that year. I think I went to the States to play a hell of a lot of futures for like three months straight.

I can't remember where I was watching the final. I remember watching it. I remember being so -- I have never been so nervous watching it. And obviously I didn't really know Andy at the time. I have never been so nervous watching a match of two people I had never really met before.

Yeah, it was magical, that, wasn't it? You could feel the nerves as well. He's so human on court, Andy. You could really feel the emotions he was going through.

It was almost surreal once he got over the line. And now to look back -- it was against Djokovic, right? To look back now and realize it was against Novak who has won Wimbledon seven times I think it is now.

Q. Last time Novak lost on Centre Court.

LIAM BROADY: Yeah. I saw that the other day. That's an insane stat. I'm not sure there is many other stats like that in tennis.

But like I said, to now look back at all of that and realize how Andy still managed to win Wimbledon twice and beat Novak in the finals of U.S., I think, as well. It's a ridiculous career.

Q. For you as a young player, was that impactful at all?

LIAM BROADY: I guess it probably made people a little bit -- I won't say nicer. A little bit more tolerable of all British tennis players (smiling). Andy took the heat off everybody with those wins.

And even now, you know, on the men's side, it's a difficult one, because over the last few weeks, a few of the, not few of the women, but the women's side of British tennis rightly or wrongly have got a bit of stick for not having anyone in the top 100.

It's difficult, isn't it, because on the men's side, obviously Andy is just an absolute freak of nature. He's been one of the best players on the planet and still is. Then we've got Cam, again, one of the best players on the planet. Draper, once he gets his body fit, will be right up there top 10 easily. Evo as well who is another fantastic player.

We are lucky on the men's side to have all those guys there. If they weren't there, then it would be me at No. 1, and everybody would be saying the same thing about British tennis.

So, you know, we're lucky to have these guys and obviously need to cherish them as much as we can. Having said that, on the women's side, they have responded great over the last few weeks. Boults in the top 100 now. Jodie's pushing. Obviously I think when Emma comes back from injury, I'm not sure she's going to be outside of the top 100 for long. Harriet is playing fantastic.

My brother asked me a couple months ago who I thought would end the year British No. 1 in the women's, and I said to him, I think they'll all have a go. They'll all have a go at No. 1.

And maybe that's the best thing for them at the moment, it's so open on the women's side of the game in British tennis, that realistically any one of them that has a good year will end the year British No. 1. I think that's an amazing opportunity.