Norrie feeds off raucous crowd to overcome tricky Frenchman
CAM NORRIe endured chilly temperatures and a mix of support and abuse from rowdy fans before battling into the Australian Open third round at 1.28am yesterday.
The British No 1 fought past unorthodox Frenchman Constant lestienne 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3 on a remote outside court after rain delays and will now meet Czech Jiri lehecka. several spectators were ejected for bad language directed at both players, with one telling Norrie, ‘C’mon Cam you’re world No 12 , show the c***’. Another told him he was ‘just a s*** Andy Murray’.
Norrie was unfazed. ‘In the first set there were a lot of english fans actually. And they had the football chants going, and then obviously they got kicked out,’ he said after a match whose start was delayed until 10pm. ‘But it was great so it definitely spurred me on and got me through it, especially in that third set. I thought it was good fun.
‘Those were nails conditions, completely different from what I’ve been playing the last kind of couple of weeks, it was freezing and windy, very tough playing him. For 90 per cent of the time I wasn’t there mentally so it was nice to pull it back.’ Dan evans was due to play overnight, and Andy Murray will today face one of his leading admirers on tour when he tries to follow up his first-round heroics.
The scot will take on Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis who has been a perennial struggler with injury and stands at 159 in the rankings, but is an unusual talent who defeated Roger Federer when the swiss was at his peak. looking ahead to his late-night clash with Murray, he said: ‘We get along really well. I actually really like him off the court. I remember watching him when I was younger thinking this dude looks moody as hell, he looks miserable. Then when you got to know him, he is actually a ripper bloke and a really good guy. I practised with him a fair bit, I played doubles with him at Indian Wells, so we have a good relationship. Andy was someone who when I came on to the tour was always willing to give some advice.’