Tursunov knee injury sees youngScotsafelythrough

Scot Cameron Norrie marked his US Open debut yesterday with an easy win over Russian Dmitry Tursunov who retired at the start of the third set because of a knee injury with his opponent two sets ahead and cruising.

Johannesburg-born Norrie, from Fort William, won a tight opening set on Court 14 on the tie-break before racing to a 6-1 score in the second when his opponent pulled out.

The first set went with serve until the tie-break which Tursunov, once ranked as high as 20 in the world, led 2-1 after taking the first point against serve.

British No 5 Norrie bounced back and led 8-7 when he was able to break Tursunov’s serve and claim the tiebreak 9-7.

However, the Briton, ranked at 225 and more than 400 places higher than his opponent, then dropped his serve in the first game of the second set.

Norrie broke back and held serve before breaking his opponent in the fourth game to lead 3-1.

After Norrie held to love to lead the set 4-1, Tursunov called for the trainer to get some strapping to his right knee.

Norrie broke Tursunov again before holding to love in game seven for a comfortable 6-1 victory in the second set.

Tursunov, who has never gone beyond the third round at the US Open, then retired to hand his opponent an easy victory and a place in the second round.

It was an anti-climactic way for Norrie’s landmark victory to end, and he said: “Looking back this will be great, but it’s kind of disappointing not winning the last point and him retiring.

“I did well to tough out the first set. I don’t think he wanted to complete the second set, his knee was bothering him as well.

“I’m loving it in New York, I’m stoked with myself.”

Norrie made his grand slam debut at Wimbledon after being given a wild card but was well beaten by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The left-hander can now look forward to a second-round clash with 12th seed Pablo Carreno Busta.

I don’t think he wanted to complete the second set as his knee was bothering him as well. CAMERON NORRIE