The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
British No 2 denied upset victory over Anderson at Queen’s Club
TENNIS: British No 2 sees chance slip away in Queen’s opener
Cameron Norrie missed out on one of the biggest scalps of his career at Queen’s Club after going down in three sets to last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Kevin Anderson.
The British number two looked on course to kick off his grass-court campaign in style at the Fever-Tree Championships after taking the first set.
But Anderson, the world number eight, levelled the first-round match on the tie-break and a solitary break of the Norrie serve in the decider gave him a 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 victory.
Big-serving South African Anderson was making his comeback from an elbow injury which forced him to miss the entire clay-court season.
The ring-rust was evident as Norrie secured a break of the 33-year-old’s serve in a first game lasting eight minutes.
Norrie was hardly threatened on his serve, wrapping up the first set with a hold to love.
However, the 23-year-old had to save break points in the fourth and sixth games of the second set, while the Anderson serve was also ominously beginning to click into gear.
Norrie dug deep to hold for 6-6 and force the tie-break, only for Anderson to pinch it to level the match.
Norrie fended off one break point in the fifth game of the decider but then put a forehand long to give Anderson what turned out to be the crucial advantage.
James Ward, the British number four, also fell by the wayside, beaten by Gilles Simon of France.
Ward took the first set against the world number 38 and, having dropped the second, led 4-2 in the decider. However, the 32-year-old, ranked 212 in the world, lost a tense final-set tie-break as Simon sealed a 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-2) win.
Reigning champion Marin Cilic of Croatia beat Chilean Cristian Garin 6-1 7-6 (7-5) and Russian fourth seed Daniil Medvedev knocked out Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 6-2 6-4.
British number one Kyle Edmund takes on top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece this afternoon while Dan Evans faces Stan Wawrinka buoyed by backto-back Challenger titles on the grass of Surbiton and Nottingham.
British women’s number one Johanna Konta impressed in her first match since reaching the French Open semi-finals to ease into the second round of the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham.
Konta made a seamless transition from clay to grass, beating big-hitting Estonian Anett Kontaveit 6-4 6-2.
Kontaveit is only ranked two places lower than world number 18 Konta but the seventh seed played at a high level throughout and wrapped up victory in an hour and 12 minutes.
Konta said: “No single match guarantees anything but I really enjoyed being on the grass playing the match I played today.
“I had a very tough opponent out there and I had to really make sure that I didn’t have too many dips in my level because she was always going to be right there.”
There was disappointment, though, for British number two Heather Watson, who let a lead slip in a 3-6 6-3 6-4 defeat by Barbora Strycova.
Watson was unhappy with a number of line calls and declined to shake the umpire’s hand at the end of the match.
Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan pulled off an upset in the opening contest of the day, defeating fourth seed Elina Svitolina 6-3 3-6 6-4.
Fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka also exited the tournament, showing her frustration as she lost a break advantage in the final set to go down 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-1) to Hsieh Su-wei.