I’M NO DENIS THE MENACE
US OPEN LATEST Canadian bad boy insists he’s learned lesson after belting ball in umpire’s eye Norrie: I’m ready to take on best in the world
CAMERON NORRIE is refusing to plot a route to the top of world tennis because he’s ready to compete with the best right now.
The British No.5 was bullish despite his straight-sets defeat in the second round of the US Open by 12th seed Pablo Carreno Busta.
The adopted Scot, ranked No.225 in the world, was swatted aside 6-2 6-4 6-3 at Flushing Meadows after DENIS SHAPOVALOV blasted an umpire with a ball – and Kyle Edmund reckons it was the wake-up call to make him a top tennis pro. Edmund is the last Brit standing in the Big Apple and must overcome the Canadian mischief maker today in the third round of the US Open. Shapovalov infamously whacked French official Arnaud Gabas in the eye and immediately defaulted the Davis Cup rubber against Edmund in Ottawa in February. The 18-year-old was later fined £5500 by tennis bosses and issued a profuse apology for his petulance, born of frustration at losing a point to the British No.2. The incident, which went viral online, could have broken the fledgling career of the former US Open and Wimbledon junior winner but he has gone from strength to strength. He defeated eighth seed Jo Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets at Flushing Meadows on Wednesday night, a couple of hours after Edmund had dismissed American Steve Johnson 7-5 6-2 7-6 (7-4) in his secondround tie. Tsonga became Shapovalov’s latest high-profile scalp after victories against Juan Martin del Potro and Rafa Nadal in the Rogers Cup last winning his spot in the main draw via the qualifiers.
His three victories in the build-up – added to his firstround win over Russian Dmitry Tursunov – are set to catapult him into the top 200 but he admits he doesn’t have a clue how the seeding system works.
He also confessed it doesn’t matter anyway as he’s capable month. Edmund said: “I don’t think an incident like the one in Ottawa will happen again. In the moment, he obviously realised he did wrong.
“In a funny way it’s actually helped him mature because since then he has done well.
“He has learned from it and moved forward in a positive way and realised that behaviour is something he must improve. He has had a good year since then.
“I’ve watched the incident back again. It got a few YouTube hits. All of my matches have between 5000 or 10,000 hits, then you click on that one and it has been watched 200,000 times.
“You can see on the video that my head was down when he hit it. I thought he hit the ball against the boards at the side next to our team.
“I thought the umpire was saying, ‘Oh no, what’s he done? You can’t smack a ball like that so close to people’ and then I realised it actually hit him. Everyone was in shock, it was very weird.”
Shapovalov agrees with Edmund’s analysis. He said: “I’ve come a long way from the incident, it has helped me mature. I’ve apologised for my actions.
“It’s something I have to live with but it’s in the past and I’m a different of taking on the top 20 in the world without plotting a pre-planned route to the top.
Norrie said: “I’m ready to compete with them now, I just need more of these matches.
“I haven’t even looked at my ranking, I don’t even know how they work. I’m just trying to win matches.
“I belong here and I can play at this level. I guess I can take confidence from that and I can person and a different player now. It’s a new match.”
Edmund remains on course to at least match last year’s fourth-round run in this tournament. He’s showing no signs of fatigue after clinically dismissing Johnson in his ninth match in 12 days.
He said: “I’ve picked up good momentum at this tournament in the last couple of years. I can be aggressive on these courts and be rewarded. You’re playing in the US Open on a good court so you’ve got to really enjoy the experience.
“Maybe I’ve also been more animated. Taking the fight to the opponent mentally is going to help me moving forward as well.”
Meanwhile, Aljaz Bedene is set to take a time out from tennis after crashing out of the tournament in the first round.
The British No.3 lost 6-1 6-4 6-4 to Russian teenager Andrey Rublev and revealed he has been plagued with a knee injury since Wimbledon.
Bedene was badly out of touch against Rublev, 19, and said: “I’m struggling with movement at the moment. I’ve had problems with the knee since Wimbledon and thought it was going to be okay but it’s not so these are tough times.
“I will probably have to postpone tennis for the moment.” compete with these top guys.”
Norrie was broken six times by the ruthless and streetwise Carreno Busta. He forced seven break points from his opponent but broke him only once.
He added: “I was a little disappointed with how I started. It was pretty loud and it was an awkward time of day.
“I allowed myself to work my way into the match. He was too good today but I enjoyed it.”
GARY RALSTON