British wildcard Ryan Peniston is knocked out of Wimbledon after suffering a straight-sets defeat against Steve Johnson… but will still earn £78,000 for his efforts at SW19
- British wildcard Ryan Peniston has been in fine form on grass in recent weeks
- He won his opening round match at Wimbledon to guarantee himself £78,000
- He was unable to get the better of Steve Johnson, though, on Wednesday
- Peniston was knocked out in straight sets by his American opponent
Ryan Peniston’s dream summer was brought to an abrupt end as he was swept aside by American Steve Johnson.
The British wildcard, who battled cancer as a child, admitted he was pinching himself after winning his first-round match against Henri Laaksonen at Wimbledon on Monday, which guaranteed him £78,000 in prize money.
That followed the 26-year-old’s successive runs to the quarter-finals at Nottingham, Queen’s and Eastbourne.
Ryan Peniston was knocked out of Wimbledon on Wednesday after losing to Steve Johnson
Steve Johnson proved to be far too strong for the British wildcard in their second round match
However, all hope Peniston had of extending his grass-court summer was quickly extinguished on Court No3, with the powerful Johnson crushing him in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
It was a disappointing end against a man ranked 93 in the world, who the in-form Essex player may well have fancied beating in front of his home crowd.
Yet grass is also Johnson’s favourite surface having reached the last 16 here in 2016, the same year he won the title at Nottingham.
And the 32-year-old, making his ninth appearance at Wimbledon, made his experience count against the Grand Slam debutant to reach the third round here for the fourth time.
Peniston had issues on serve from the very first game of the match against Johnson
The Brit was constantly put on the back foot by his American opponent throughout the match
Right from the off, Peniston looked up against it and needed to save three break points in his opening service game.
He faced another battle to save his next serve but was then broken twice, with Johnson faultless when the balls were in his pocket.
It was the same story in the second set, with Peniston making too many errors, especially on the backhand side, dumping shot after shot into the net.
Johnson broke his opponent twice to ease into a two-set led and, by then, the match did not look in doubt.
With the British crowd doing their best to rally Peniston, he managed to hold off Johnson for longer in the third.
But at 4-4, a double fault led to Johnson breaking Peniston for a fifth time in the match and, despite facing the first break point against him, he served out for a comfortable win.
Johnson is now through to the third round at Wimbledon for the fourth time in his career
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