Boulter leads trio of Britons to third round with victory over Pliskova

But Katie Boulter avoided the same fate as Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu by overcoming a one-man deficit to knock out No. 6 seed Karolina Pliskova.

And there were victories for Liam Broady, who defeated number 12 seed Diego Schwartzman in a five-set marathon, and Heather Watson, who needed just one game to book her place in the third round.

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

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

Played under the roof due to the threat of rain that never materialized, this is her first time in the third round and her biggest scalp against last year’s Wimbledon runner-up.

Boulter, who revealed after the victory that her grandmother died two days ago, was broken twice in the opening set as Pliskova quickly found her rhythm and there was a series of breaks in the second set when it went to a draw has.

In the match, Boulter proved the slightly more clinical at the break points and converted four of six to her Czech opponent’s four of eight. And the Briton got the mini-break par excellence to go 3-0 for a lead she never conceded.

In a tight and tense deciding set, she got the speaking breather in the ninth game and served the game cool.

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 Schwartzman 6-2, 4-6, 0-6, 7-6, 6- 1 to beat in probably the biggest win of his career.

In a remarkable turnaround, he lost 11 consecutive games from the second to fourth sets, recovering from 3-0 down in the fourth to win a draw and then the deciding set. As a result, he will have at least £ 120.00 worth of prize money in his pocket.

Heather Watson will play at Wimbledon for a fifth consecutive day on Friday after needing just one game to end her game against Qiang Wang.

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

However, Harriet Dart’s hopes of becoming a third British woman in round three were shattered in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 defeat to No. 8 seed Jessica Pegula.

Fellow Brit Alastair Gray has joined future roommate Ryan Peniston to emerge from the second round of Wimbledon in a 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 defeat against No. 11 seed Taylor Fritz.

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

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

The Briton struck a total of 30 unforced errors at 11 by Fritz, who was knocked out by Queen’s former school friend Jack Draper – the two who attended a school next to Chelsea’s Cobham training ground – at Queen’s earlier this month.

Hope that he could support his day-two victory against Tseng Chun-hsin gave hope when he broke his American opponent in the second set and had the opportunity to serve for the set and level the game.

But he was broken, lost the ensuing draw and then faltered in the final set to end what was a promising Wimbledon debut.

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

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

De Minaur joins British friend Katie Boulter in the third round, who watched along the track for her career’s best win over Karolina Pliskova, while Draper should draw great encouragement from what was a good match.