Thursday at Wimbledon: Boulter takes centre stage as Brits seek bounce back

Katie Boulter will take centre stage at Wimbledon on Thursday as she and fellow Brit Jack Draper attempt to reach the uncharted territory of the third round at the All England Club.

Boulter, who is excelling on grass for a second successive summer, will attempt to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time as she takes on No 6 seed Karolina Pliskova, first on Centre Court.

While it's undoubtedly a huge challenge for the World No 118, there are several reasons to believe she is capable of knocking out last year's runner-up.

The most obvious is that she beat Pliskova just a week ago in Eastbourne, crowning an impressive series of grass-court performances that saw her take notable scalps in Nottingham and Birmingham.

Also in the 25-year-old's favour is the experience she gained at the same stage last year, when she put up a very competitive showing on her Centre Court debut against No 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka.

"Me going out there the past few weeks, I put those grass-court wins last year under my belt and I felt like I used them in the crucial moments," Boulter said after Tuesday's straight-sets victory over Clara Burel.

"I learnt from my mistakes against Sabalenka. When I was playing Pliskova last week, it did make a difference to me because I know I can be in those places.

"Over the past few years, I've had a lot of close matches with very, very good players, but I could never quite get over the line. I feel like I now have the belief to be able to do that. Hopefully I can produce that more and more."

Despite Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray's disappointing exits on Wednesday, the fact that 10 Brits - the most since 1984 - advanced to the second round, means there is still plenty of home interest on Thursday.

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