EASY FOR NORRIE
British No 3 cruises through and Watson finds her form, too
CAMERON Norrie’s transition from college student to the biggest claycourt stage of all may come to pass at Roland Garros this week.
The British No 3 will find out today whether his French Open second round against the host nation’s top player will take place on Philippe Chatrier, this event’s equivalent of Centre Court at Wimbledon.
It is an entirely possible scenario after the 22-year- old received an unexpectedly easy passage through the first round when his opponent, German Peter Gojowczyk, retired when 6-1, 2-0 down.
Heather Watson joined Norrie (right) in the second round last night, reversing her sagging form of this year with a 6-3, 6-0 win over France’s Oceane Dodin. Norrie takes on Lucas Pouille, the No 15 seed, who is France’s best hope in the men’s singles owing to the injuries and poor form suffered by the likes of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Any partisan atmosphere should not faze Norrie, but take him back to the recent days of being the standout player for Texas Christian University, which he left last spring with a sociology degree. Rowdy crowds are part of the competitive American college circuit, of which he is one of the highest rated products over the last decade. ‘I love being the underdog and all the pressure is on him. It’s going to be a battle,’ he said. While bullish about his form, he was disappointed his second win in a Grand Slam was achieved in the same way as his first, at the US Open, because of a retirement at the other end of the court.
Gojowczyk, who reached the final of the recent ATP event in Geneva, called on the physio after the first set to administer treatment around his groin area.
Norrie — largely raised in New Zealand by a Scottish father and Welsh mother — did not seem to be impressed, and had not discerned a great deal wrong with the German.
‘He was hitting the ball big and well. It didn’t look like anything was bothering him too much,’ he said. ‘I was playing great. I was in the zone. I was serving well. That was the best tennis of my life.
‘I wrong-footed him a couple times. If he had been winning, there’s no chance he’d have retired.’
Pouille, who made the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year, was beaten by Kyle Edmund at the Italian Open earlier this month and Norrie will be asking his friend for tactical hints. ‘I’ll see what he thinks,’ he said. ‘ Kyle’s played him a couple times.’
Watson has been haemorrhaging losses since the Australian Open, but showed her liking for Roland Garros again with a sixth first- round victory here. She has not, however, been able to progress to the third round, and now plays Elise Mertens or Varvara Lepchenko.
Yesterday’s opponent, ranked 139, was hopelessly out of touch, but Watson served well, hitting nine aces. She feels that winning a close match last week in Nuremberg against Kateryna Bondarenko will herald a turnaround in her fortunes. ‘I’ve been playing really well and, believe it or not, feeling very confident,’ she said.