Norrie beaten on ATP Finals debut in Turin

Cameron Norrie was beaten by Casper Ruud on his Nitto ATP Finals debut yesterday after replacing the injured Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The British No 1 found out earlier in the day that he would get his chance in Turin when Tsitsipas decided to pull the plug because of an ongoing elbow problem.

Norrie made a flying start against Ruud but the Norwegian turned the match around to win 1-6 6-3 6-4 and make it a straight fight against Andrey Rublev tomorrow for a place in the semi-finals.

Two alternates have made it into the tournament for the first time since 1998, and Norrie was hoping to follow in the footsteps of Jannik Sinner, who seized his chance impressively after replacing fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini.

Norrie certainly could not have done any more in the opening set but a wayward end to the second proved the turning point and eighth seed Ruud was the better player in the decider.

Norrie, who began the match with an outside chance of making the semi-finals, will now take on Novak Djokovic in his final match tomorrow.

It will be a first meeting for 26-year-old Norrie against world No 1 Djokovic and, although it is a dead rubber, there is still 200 ranking points and more than £120,000 on the line.

Djokovic, who is chasing a recordequalling sixth title, booked his place in the semi-finals with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Rublev.

There were mixed fortunes for the British players in doubles, with Joe Salisbury and American partner Rajeev Ram close to reaching the semi-finals but Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares are out.

The Scottish-Brazilian pair were beaten by Salisbury and Ram on Monday and a 6-2 6-4 loss to Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah means they cannot reach the last four.

Salisbury and Ram saved two match points in a deciding tie-break against Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut to win 6-7 (7) 6-0 13-11.