Move over Andy Murray. Britain has not one new Wimbledon champion but two. Liam Broady and Tom Farquharson beat their fellow Britons Lewis Burton and George Morgan 7-6, 6-4 today to win the boys' doubles title, the first home triumph since Martin Lee and James Trotman won the title together in 1995. It was a win-win situation for the fans on Court One with British winners guaranteed and in the end it was the 16-year-old Broady, who hails from Fred Perry's home town of Stockport, and the 18-year-old Farquharson who edged to their first grand slam junior title.
"It's kind of surreal," Broady said. "You're on court even in the finals and you're match point up and it's kind of like you're still thinking, 'Can we do this?' Obviously we got the match point out of the way. Once we did, it just felt awesome."
Farquharson said it was hard to describe how exciting it was to be a junior grand slam champion. "I don't think either of us know how to explain it really," he said. "Playing on Court One with all that support, it was just unbelievable."
Burton and Morgan had come through two epic three-set battles to make thefinal and they struck first by breaking Broady's serve in the first game. But as the match wore on, the wild-card entrants Broady and Farquharson shed theirinitial nerves and hit back to win the first set in a tie-break, 7-4. After breaking inthe third game of the second set, they held the advantage throughout and Farquharson held his nerve to serve out for the title.
Broady is the sister of Naomi Broady, who was suspended by the Lawn Tennis Association in 2007 after she posted pictures on Facebook supposedly promoting a partying lifestyle, breaching the contracts that required them to act professionally. That prompted the Broadys' father, Simon, to remove them from the LTA and, though both have now been offered funding, they spend most of their time at the Mouratoglou academy on the outskirts of Paris. "Obviously it gives you the motivation to fight harder but I try to stay clear of the politics and focus on the game," Broady said, diplomatically.
Farquharson, who is studying A-levels through an internet course, is funded by the LTA but spends a lot of his time training at a club in Marseille, where his brother coaches. Both boys said they plan to focus their attention on singles and stepping up to senior level but both said that being British winners in another year of disappointing results for the senior players was something of which to be proud.
"We were a few rounds away from having a winner in the boys' singles and girls' singles," Broady said, after Ollie Golding and Laura Robson missed out on a place in their finals. "Sometimes it doesn't work out right. On a good day Ollie [Golding] could have won the semi-final match but it's just the way it worked out."
Burton said he was happy that two Britons won the tournament. "It was very disappointing to lose in the final," he said, "but getting there is a big achievement as well, so we need to remember that. We're glad Britain won the tournament."
India's Leander Paes and Cara Black of Zimbabwe beat Wesley Moodie of South Africa and the American Lisa Raymond 6-4, 7-6 to win the mixed doubles title.
