Cameron Norrie outlasted his fellow Briton Andy Murray in an engrossing battle of attrition Wednesday in Cincinnati, the place the ninth seed triumphed 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 within the pair’s second-round conflict on the Western & Southern Open.
Neither participant was capable of take management for any vital interval through the tight two-hour, 38-minute encounter in Ohio, however it was Norrie who discovered one thing further within the closing levels as two-time champion Murray started to wrestle bodily within the Cincinnati warmth. A solitary break late in each the second and third units was sufficient for Norrie to safe his first win in opposition to Murray and his thirty ninth tour-level win of the yr.
“I simply wanted to place a whole lot of balls within the courtroom,” stated Norrie after levelling his ATP Head2Head sequence in opposition to Murray at 1-1. “At first of the match nothing was actually working for me, I used to be probably not being bodily, I used to be probably not executing how I preferred.
“Credit score to Andy, he got here out and was utilizing his slice rather a lot, coming ahead properly. He reads the sport extremely, so credit score to him and it was not straightforward in the direction of the top, I managed simply to discover a approach.”
A match of wonderful margins was outlined by some pivotal moments, most notably when Murray pushed a routine backhand volley broad when he had break level within the opening recreation of the second set. Norrie made no mistake when his alternatives got here, breaking within the eighth recreation of the second set and the ninth recreation of the third as his consistency from deep ensured the Murray supply was regularly below strain.
“Truthfully, I turned away and I believed the volley was on the road, however it’s simply these moments,” stated Norrie, who prevailed regardless of hanging one fewer winners (33) than his opponent. “There have been a pair within the second and third set as properly, when he had a few break probabilities, after which I used to be capable of play the larger factors just a little bit higher. It got here down to 1 or two factors and that was the distinction.”
Norrie will subsequent face fifth seed Casper Ruud or American wild card Ben Shelton in Cincinnati, the place he fell within the opening spherical in two earlier appearances. The 26-year-old claimed his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells final yr, and Norrie now holds a 12-6 match report on the elite degree in 2022.
Earlier on Wednesday, Felix Auger-Aliassime made a robust begin to his Cincinnati marketing campaign with a snug 6-3, 6-2 victory in opposition to Alex de Minaur.
The seventh seed was in wonderful kind on return in his first ATP Head2Head assembly with De Minaur. Auger-Aliassime transformed 4 of six break factors on the way in which to a 78-minute win that improved his match report for 2022 to 35-19.
Auger-Aliassime reached the quarter-finals at his house match in Montreal final week, and the 22-year-old seeks one other robust displaying in Cincinnati in an effort to enhance his possibilities of qualifying for November’s Nitto ATP Finals for the primary time. Wednesday’s win lifted the Canadian one spot to sixth within the Pepperstone ATP Reside Race To Turin.
