Schnur one win away from Wimbledon main draw

ROEHAMPTON – A year ago at this time, in hot and steamy London, Brayden Schnur was one victory away from his first career Grand Slam main draw.

After two routine victories in the first two rounds, he came out with the wrong game plan against American Christian Harrison and ended up on the short end of a 7-6 (3), 7-5, 6-1 defeat that left a bitter taste.

A year later, the 23-year-old is still looking for his first Grand Slam main draw.

But after not expending too much energy in his first two rounds – again – he’s going to come out swinging against Salvatore Caruso of Italy on Thursday.

Schnur defeated fellow Canadian (more truly, Spanish-Canadian) Steven Diez 6-3, 6-4 Wednesday to advance to the final round.

On Monday, he dispatched Maxime Janvier of France 6-3, 6-2.

Here’s what it looked like against Diez.

Best-of-five in the final round

A study in perseverance, Harrison makes Wimbledon

Schnur said that while it was an adjustment to go from best-of-three sets to playing best-of-five sets the next day in the final round, it was actually a great transition to the main draw.

Here’s what he had to say.