Andy Murray’s greatest hits not enough to stop John Isner’s heavy metal music at Wimbledon

There was a sense that this might not be the most memorable day for British tennis on the greatest stage at Wimbledon. It soon became apparent that Emma Raducanu was unable to direct her latest major with the panache of September ’21. She was being moved around like an extra by the clever play of Caroline Garcia whose gameplan suffocated the early afternoon optimism of the crowd.

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Raducanu wasn’t worried. As she reminded everyone, there’s no pressure: “Like, why is there any pressure? I’m still 19. Like, it’s a joke. I literally won a Slam.” She’s right but going out on day three felt a little premature.

There was no better antidote to that disappointing but not entirely unexpected loss than Andy Murray walking out to lift the spirits at tea-time. His second-round record at SW19 was 13-0 as he prepared to add another notch to an 8-0 head-to-head stat. Functional win with a bit of a dodgy patch felt like the most sensible prediction.

Until they started playing. Isner broke in the third game and just grew. It’s hard to grow when you are already six foot ten inches but there was a groove to his game that neutered the home fans. Was this really “the big-serving but not much else” John Isner?

Ended in style @JohnIsner secures a superb Centre Court victory, defeating Andy Murray 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 6-4#Wimbledon | #CentreCourt100 pic.twitter.com/QH5jUUJcSe

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 29, 2022

The best returner in town simply couldn’t break the American. Murray always finds a