Cameron Norrie said he was ‘mentally terrible’ during his second round match at the Australian Open.
The 19th seed battled to a hard-fought 3-6, 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, win over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri in what was a rain-inteupted encounter. Norrie struggled to generate any rhythm at times with 24 out of his 49 unforced errors occuring during the first two sets of his match. However, he capitalised on his opponent’s mistakes to turn the match around in his favour and didn’t drop serve during the last three sets.
Norrie’s match was halted after he lost the second set tiebreaker due to rain which turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Brit.
“I was making excuses to myself, I was mentally terrible,” he said during an on-court interview with Eurosport’s Laura Robson.
“But he took the racquet out my hands in the first hour and a half, and I couldn’t play. Then a couple of rain delays and I somehow lifted and won the third set.
“And then when I came out for the fourth set, the crowd were amazing and I thought I was going to win the match – I knew it. I had this feeling and I managed to play solid enough. But he was a great player, credit to him, he made it really difficult.”
It is the third time that the 28-year-old has reached the last 32 at Melbourne Park. It is also only the second time in his career that he has won a Grand Match after conceding the first two sets. The first time he did so was at the 2020 US Open against Diego Schwartzman.
Awaiting Norrie in the next round will be Casper Ruud who also experienced a roller-coaster victory on Thursday. The Norweigan ousted home favourite Max Purcell 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(10/7) after almost four hours of play.
“I think his plan was just to stress me as much as he could, just rip balls from the back, try to rush, come to the net. He does it so well. It’s tough for me to find any rhythm.” Ruud said of Purcell.
“He serves great. He’s not the biggest guy, but he has a really quick arm and shoulder. He generates a lot of spin speed with the serve, and he mixes up. He’s a really tricky player and a great tennis player in my eyes, even though he plays differently from others.
“I’m very happy with the win.”
Ruud currently leads Norrie 3-0 in their head-to-head but the last time they played was in 2022.
“I need to be on top of my game if I want to hang in there with him,” Ruud commented.
“I have played him a few times before, been able to beat him before. I know what has given me the win. He will try to seek revenge and find a way to beat me.’
“It’s going to be a tough one.”
Elsewhere, Alexander Zverev also moved into the third round with a 7-5 3-6 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (10-7) win over qualifier Lukas Klein. He will next play Alex Michelson.
