(Tennis news) Having defeated Marton Fucsovics 6-2 7-6 (7-4), British tennis star Cameron Norrie will now face Novak Djokovic in the last 16. Norrie was leading by a set and 5-1 before his Hungarian opponent fought back but the British number 1 had to dig deep to secure the victory. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic defeated Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 4-6 6-1 after seeing his 4-2 lead in the second set disappear. In the women’s category, Iga Swiatek reached the last 16 while sixth seed Coco Gauff was eliminated.
Norrie started off strongly against his 92nd ranked opponent and broke for an early 3-1 lead and broke again in the eighth game. Fucsovics struggled on his serve and Norrie took advantage of it twice to go 5-1 up and move closer to victory. However, Norrie suddenly began struggling as Fucsovics staged a mini revival, breaking Norrie twice and saved five match points, four on his own serve and level it at 5-5. Norrie showed great composure to go 6-5 up but Fucsovics leveled again, forcing the match to go to the tie-break.
Having lost the first two points and going 3-1 down, Norrie adopted a more aggressive approach that was lacking in the latter part of the set. He found another gear and took a 6-3 lead before winning the seventh match point. As for Djokovic, the Serbian world number 1 recovered well from his struggles in the second set where Dimitrov won four games in a row. Speaking after the match, Djokovic said “What is interesting would be to understand how much tennis they’re playing on the court actually before the tournament starts
“If you don’t use the court, and you have a clay court, the court breaks. You have many holes. You have an uneven surface, really bad bounces, and a lot of clay. In Rome, it has been happening for quite a few years. Now there’s really not much you can do. It’s just kind of covering the holes here and there. Hopefully as the days pass and the tournament progresses, the court will get better.”
Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek defeated Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko 6-2 6-0. The Polish world number 1 lost the first two games but went on to dominate the match by winning 12 in a row after that. Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic defeated sixth seed Coco Gauff 4-6 6-2 6-2 while Marketa Vondrousova overcame Maria Sakkari 7-5, 6-3. The result meant that six of the top 10 women are now out of the tournament.
Also read: Novak Djokovic and Cameron Norrie reach last 32 of Italian Open
