Cam ’n’ have a go!
NORRIE’S TOO TOUGH FOR TEEN BRAT
CAM NORRIE kept his cool in the New York heat to send home naughty teenager Holger Rune.
The Dane, 19, has already earned a reputation for petulance – he had clashed with Casper Ruud after losing their French Open quarterfinal earlier this year.
And the No.28 seed yesterday complained to umpire Timo Janzen that Norrie was stopping during his service action and running over the 25-second shot clock as the British No.1 was serving for the second set.
Rune raged: “How many times did you see it? Are you kidding me? You saw it one time. Are you crazy? You can’t see it? You really think he’s not doing it on purpose?”
After another Rune rant at the German umpire, the world No.33 folded in the final set to see Norrie win 7-5 6-4 6-1, with the Brit continuing the form which took him to the Wimbledon semi-finals. “Holger is not easy,” said Norrie. “He hits very aggressively, so you have got to be ready for anything.
“I stayed a lot calmer than he did throughout a lot of big moments in the match. I managed to stay tough in the first set and again when I was serving for the second set.”
The No.7 seed joked before the match about looking like Sponge Bob Square Pants in his yellow shirt, but this was serious stuff as he reached the second week here for the first time. He has now
won 44 matches this season – ranking him third for wins on the
ATP Tour behind Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
In the live rankings, he is now up to world No.8 – and will overtake the absent Novak Djokovic with one more victory.
Norrie has yet to drop a set here and has spent only six hours and 16 minutes on court, but is ready to run and run.
“My goal today was to get to two hours and then we start the match from there,” he said. “Literally when it hit two hours, I broke to go
2-1 up in the third set, pointed to Facu [coach Facundo Lugones] and was like, ‘Now the match starts’.
“Rune seemed to die a little bit. I don’t know what was going on with him.
“I feel great physically. Sometimes you start the tournament a little bit tight. Get through those matches, you get confidence and then you feel the courts a bit better.”
Rune, who reported “dizziness” in the second set, tried to explain why Norrie’s serving style upset him so.
The teen said: “I was getting ready to return and taking a step in and then he did it [paused]... but then he was extremely quick sometimes and I wasn’t even ready.
“Was he doing it as a deliberate tactic? No, I don’t think so – but 10-15 times is too much.”