In a week where Australia has had a sporting stranglehold on British soil, Cameron Norrie edged out Aussie Jordan Thompson to book his place in the quarter-finals at Queen’s.
A day after Andy Murray had received a wake-up call against Thompson’s countryman Aleix di Minaur and England’s cricketers suffered a narrow defeat, Norrie looked to be going the same way when losing the opening set to Thompson.
As he has in recent weeks, Norrie struggled with his ball toss on occasion and couldn’t quite find consistency in his early game plan.
In contrast, Thompson served well and was deserving of the lead only for Norrie to play his way back into the tie, increasingly prove the aggressor and take what seemed like a relatively comfortable win at the end with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 scoreline.
Afterwards, he said: “He dropped his level slightly... and I was able to come out with a lot more energy. That was the difference. There wasn’t a lot in it. But it’s the perfect match heading into Wimbledon.”
Thompson was a tough second-round opponent, his ability on grass such that he was earmarked by Murray in his post-match press conference as a threat both here and at Wimbledon.
In the opening set, Norrie found himself facing two break points in game five, which he rescued after poor returns from Thompson on two second serves.
The British No1 faced exactly the same plight in his next service game courtesy of hitting a volley into an open court long and then letting a smash go only to see the ball drop in.
Thompson promptly broke at the second time of asking and, despite facing a break-back point when serving for the set at 5-4, staved off that threat.
Even when not necessarily playing his best tennis – as was the case at times during the match – Norrie has a propensity to grind down his opponents and grind out the wins.
He produced two exquisite back-to-back shots, though, to get the break to go 4-2 in the second set, a forehand down the line to pass his opponent at the net and then a lob, whose trajectory was aided by coming off the frame.
In the third set, he got an even early break and Thompson, for all his scrambling efforts, could not quite claw his way back.
Norrie had been due to return to court later in the men’s doubles in a rare pairing with Andy Murray but Murray pulled out citing fatigue as he turned his attention to his Wimbledon preparations.
