Norrie claims much-needed win in Rome

CAMERON NORRIE eased into the third round of the Italian Open while defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek was in ruthless form.

British No.1 Norrie has yet to really catch fire on clay this season, winning one match each in Barcelona and Madrid and losing his first encounter in Monte-Carlo, so a 6-2, 6-3, victory over French qualifier Alexandre Muller was much needed.

While it was a match Norrie would have expected to win, the manner of his success was encouraging, with the 27-year-old facing only one break point and taking his own chances confidently.

The 13th seed will next face Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, who upset Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4.

Novak Djokovic made a winning return to action despite complaining about the state of the court and appearing to be feeling a little under the weather.

In his second-round clash with Argentina’s Tomas Etcheverry, he had to battle hard to win a long first set before pulling away to triumph 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

Djokovic dropped serve in the opening game and, although he quickly fought back, he was unhappy about the number of bad bounces. The 35-year-old also seemed to be troubled by his stomach.

Speaking on Amazon Prime, he said: “I’m still not at the desired level, finding the shots, finding that groove on the court. He started better than I did. I’m happy with the way I closed out that match.”

On his complaints about the court, he said: “Every second bounce is uneven, the court is not in a great state, but you’ve got to deal with that.”

Djokovic next plays Grigor Dimitrov, while there were victories for Casper Ruud, Holger Rune, Jannik Sinner and Fabio Fognini.

Performance of the day, though, came from world No.1 Swiatek, who responded to her Madrid Open final loss to Aryna Sabalenka by thumping former French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0, 6-0.