Cameron Norrie has grown accustomed to playing the pantomime villain on Court Suzanne-Lenglen at this year’s French Open as he beat home opposition for a second successive round on Wednesday.
Against Benoit Paire in the opening round, Norrie had lacked for his usual rhythm on clay amid a fervent backdrop and had to claw a break back in a deciding set for the win.
Facing Paire’s countryman Lucas Pouille, a former top-10 player, he was met with a similar cacophony with a band and the crowd in full voice but it was a relatively straightforward win from start to finish.
There was a solitary moment of controversy when the British No1 appeared to win a point on a double bounce in the third set, which the umpire failed to call, much to the annoyance of both Pouille and the French crowd.
Their ire was only amplified when Norrie broke the very next point on his way to a 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 which, in truth, had always looked going his way.
On the ball-bouncing controversy, Norrie said he wasn’t sure if it had bounced twice at the time but that he enjoyed the raucous atmosphere on court for the second match in succession even though he was not the fan favourite.
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 I enjoy it.
“Obviously, I’d prefer it being on my side but it just so happened I played two guys from France back to back.”
Norrie got off to the best of starts, breaking Pouille’s opening service game and racing to a 5-0 lead as his shots, with which he struggled to find his range 48 hours earlier, successfully peppered all parts of the court.
With the win, he edged ever closer to a fourth-round meeting with tournament favourite Carlos Alcaraz, who suffered a mini blip against Taro Daniel, dropping the second set in a 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 win.
Norrie, who admitted he struggled to get over the line as Pouille fought back in the latter part of the match, now faces Lorenzo Musetti, the No17 seed.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic edged closer to his realisation of an outright record of 23 grand slam singles titles with a 7-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory over Marton Fucsovics.
