Britain’s Cameron Norrie has had an excellent summer. The 22 year-old won four matches at the US Open (three in qualifying, one main draw) before moving back to the Challenger circuit. He then reached three finals, winning two, to move his ranking to within striking distance of the Top 100.
Currently at No.113, the Briton has struggled in the last few weeks, suffering an early exit at the hands of fellow Briton Liam Broady in Las Vegas. In Charlottesville the South African-born player suffered a loss to a player from the country of his birth.
Ruan Roelofse secured a stunning 7-6, 6-2 win to dump out the 3rd seed and move into the quarter-finals. Roelofse will face 7th seed Michael Mmoh who had a tough second round match with fellow American Christopher Eubanks. Mmoh edged the 6’7 20 year-old 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. Mmoh had to withstand 18 aces from the racket of Eubanks, but secured a brace of breaks in sets two and three.
Another all American clash saw Ernesto Escobedo forced to retire from his meeting with former World No.53 Denis Kudla. Escobedo had won the first set on a tiebreak, but retired having lost the second set by some margin. The final score was 6-7, 6-2, Ret.
The final singles match of the day will see 6th seed Stefan Kozlov take on a resurgent Liam Broady, due to take place after a doubles match.
Tomorrow’s matches will see top seed Tennys Sandgren face young Canadian Brayden Schnur. In the bottom half of the draw 2nd seed Henri Laaksonen will face Tim Smyczek. Laaksonen has yet to drop a set to Smyczek across two meetings in 2017. Smyczek is in good form however, having dumped out 5th seed Bjorn Fratangelo in the second round.
