The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Norrie victorious in battle of Britons
PRESS ASSOCIATION
Expletives and injury hastened the respective exits of Dan Evans and Johanna Konta on day two of the Australian Open, as compatriots Cameron Norrie and Heather Watson stole centre-stage in Melbourne.
South African-born Scot Norrie admitted he had been prepared for a five-set battle in his all-british clash with Evans before a late rally saw him save a set-point and dispatch his friend, who received code and time violations in the course of his 6-4 4-6 6-4 7-5 defeat.
And while an abdominal injury brought an abrupt end to Konta’s challenge early in the second set of her match against Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan, Watson shrugged off two weeks of enforced hotel quarantine to see off Kristyna Pliskova 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3).
Norrie had felt the nerves ahead of his first tour clash with his domestic rival, who came into the game brimming with confidence after winning his first tour title at the weekend.
“I was very nervous before the match,” Norrie said.
“Obviously he had done well last week and got the title, so I knew he was going to be playing well and I was ready for that.
“I think he was a little bit fatigued from coming off last week. I was ready for a five-set battle and I thought it was going to be.”
Having dropped the first set, Evans struggled to maintain his discipline early in the second when he received two warnings in quick succession, but managed to break his opponent and haul the match back level.
After nudging back in front, Norrie staged a series of great escapes in the fourth set, twice battling from a break down and saving set-point at 5-3 before reeling off four straight games to book his place in the second round.
“After I (won) on Sunday, I just felt pretty flat ever since really, and I didn’t practise great (on Monday),” Evans said.
Following Konta’s withdrawal and a grand slam debut defeat for Francesca Jones, Watson is the last remaining Briton in the women’s singles, and said she drew strength from her unorthodox build-up to the tournament.
Watson said: “It made the victory today sweeter because we’d been through a lot the last few weeks.
“It was really tough – mentally I would say the most. Physically I felt I did a pretty good job in hard quarantine of working out pretty much every day and trying to keep up my fitness with what I could do.”
Konta won the opening set, but after returning from a medical time-out she dropped eight points in succession before informing the umpire and her opponent she was unable to play on.
The 29-year-old, who led 6-4 0-2 at the time, said: “I feel in a bit of a state of shock, almost like having an out-of-body experience a little bit.
“I have very little experience with acute injuries and having to withdraw, so it’s a learning curve for me – a new experience and one I hope not to have too many of.”
Bradford 20-year-old Jones lost 6-4 6-1 to hardhitting American Shelby Rogers.
● Andy Murray marked his first competitive action since October with a threeset victory over Germany’s Maximilian Marterer in a Challenger Tour event in Italy.
The Scot should have been competing at the Australian Open, but he was not allowed to travel to Melbourne after he tested positive for Covid-19 then couldn’t find a “workable quarantine” to play at the grand slam after recovering.
Instead, he headed for the Biella Challenger Indoor in northern Italy where, as top seed and watched by a handful of people at the Palasport Biella, he took two hours 10 minutes to see off the 25-year-old Marterer 6-7 6-2 6-3.