Cameron Norrie reached the third round of Wimbledon by beating Jack Draper in straight sets.
Draper replaced Norrie as the British men’s No1 last month, but it was the latter who came out on top on No.1 Court on Thursday evening, sealing a passage into the third round with a 7-6, 6-4, 7-6 win.
Norrie will next face either Marcos Giron of the United States or fourth seed Alexander Zverev, having become the last Brit standing in the men’s singles draw following wildcard Jacob Fearnley’s loss in four sets to seven-time winner Novak Djokovic earlier on Thursday on Centre Court.
Norrie was marginally the better player against Draper, winning the big points in both the first and third-set tiebreaks, as well as breaking Draper’s serve twice in the second, once more than his opponent broke his.
Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Norrie explained afterwards that he is good friends with fellow Brit Draper, but he was able to put that to one side here.
That said, it was Draper who displayed the finer serving, particularly in the second and third sets, when Norrie was struggling to get his first serve in.
There were no breaks of serve at all in a fraught first set, and only one apiece in the third, but Norrie held his nerve to win that final set 8-6 on a tiebreak, and progress at the expense of 28th seed Draper.
