Cameron Norrie is relishing going from tennis’ Mr Nice Guy to Paris’ public enemy No1 after knocking out two home favourites at the French Open.
Norrie beat Lucas Pouille in straight sets on Wednesday to reach the third round after edging a five-set marathon over another Frenchman, Benoit Paire, in his opener.
The British No1 was repeatedly booed by a raucous crowd in both matches on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
Of his reception, he said: “It’s a great atmosphere. It’s the matches you want to be playing. It’s really tough with the crowd chanting and definitely getting behind and changing the momentum of the match. They’re a tough crowd but, yeah, I enjoy it.
“I love it. Obviously, I’d prefer with it being on my side but it’s going to happen that way. It just so happened that I played two guys from France back to back.”
Norrie was castigated by the crowd every time he struggled with his ball toss in the windy conditions and there was an angry reaction over a contentious double bounce in his favour, which wasn’t picked up by the umpire.
At the time, the No14 said he wasn’t sure whether it had bounced twice but, after watching post-match replays, conceded it had. And like Pouille, he called for better technology to avoid a repeat.
“We have it there, we have the technology to do it,” he said. “I don’t know why we’re not doing it in all aspects. Sometimes tournaments where they have, it seems, Hawkeye for the TV and then for the match they don’t use it. It cost me a call in Madrid.
“I agree we should be using technology. I agree that we definitely could be using the video to our advantage.”
