Andy Murray completes perfect day for Britain at Wimbledon

Standard Sport5 July 2017

Andy Murray put the finishing touches to a stunning day for British tennis at Wimbledon as a home quartet reached the third round for the first time in 20 years.

The defending men's champion was imperious on Centre Court as he outfoxed the wily German-Jamaican Dustin Brown for the loss of just seven games.

The Scot's 6-3 6-2 6-2 success was much in line with expectations, given his previous huge success at the All England Club, but Murray welcomed the company in the last 32 from three other Britons.

Also on the men's side, Aljaz Bedene was a 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3 winner against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur.

There was plenty to enjoy about the victories for the British women, with Heather Watson producing a masterclass in winning 6-0 6-4 against Latvian 18th seed Anastasija Sevastova, while sixth seed Johanna Konta came through 7-6 (7/4) 4-6 10-8 from a gripping three-hour clash with Croatian Donna Vekic.

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It added up to a wonderful Wednesday for the host nation, who will hope a fifth British player reaches round three on Thursday when Kyle Edmund tackles French 15th seed Gael Monfils.

The last time Britain has known such third-round representation was 1997, when Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski, Mark Petchey, Andrew Richardson and Karen Cross reached the same stage.

Rusedski saw off Richardson, and Henman came through a famous 'People's Sunday' clash with Paul Haarhuis 14-12 in the fifth set. Petchey was knocked out by Boris Becker and Cross lost to Iva Majoli, who weeks earlier had won the French Open.

At the time, London was in the grip of the Cool Britannia era, while Tony Blair was in his early weeks as the UK's Prime Minister.

Andy Murray's Wimbledon 2017 - In pictures

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Now Murray, typical of his high standards, wants the current breed of British tennis stars to push on through the draw rather than be satisfied with reaching the third round.

He said: "Aim as high as you can. Why not try and get five, six players into the quarter-finals of slams? It's better to set the goal as high as possible and fall a little bit short than go, 'Yeah, we're delighted with five or six players in the second or third round of a slam'."

Watson was a mixed doubles champion last year and is through to the third round for the third time in her career.

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That has helped to feed her desire to go further in the singles, and she faces former world number one Victoria Azarenka on Friday, knowing victory would carry her into the second week.

"It's been one of my goals forever. I made those big goals years ago," Watson said. "Making second week of a slam would be huge for me. I haven't done it before in singles."

Bedene, who faces Gilles Muller of Luxembourg next, said: "Third round good. I'm happy with that result, but I always want to go a step further."

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And Konta was given the toughest test of all, before edging out Vekic.

That result meant that for the first time since 1986 there are two British women in the last 32.

Asked about that and the overall British success, Konta said: "I think the reasons for that is because we have got great players. I think that's probably a good enough reason."

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