Cameron Norrie said he had to ‘tough it out’ during his opening match at the ASB Classic on Wednesday.
The British second seed outlasted French youngster Luca Van Assche 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-1, in what was an at times roller-coaster encounter. Norrie eased his way through the first set before being sternly tested in the second. He had to save two set points when down 5-6 en route to forcing a tiebreak where he had his first match point but failed to convert. Enabling Van Assche to claw his way back and take proceedings into a decider. Despite the blip, he came back fighting by winning six out of the next seven games played to secure victory.
“It was the old Cam Norrie kind of win, having to tough it out,” Norrie said.
“I had a match point in the second set. He served a pretty good body serve and maybe I could have put this one in and play the point, but credit to him, he definitely raised his level, especially in that second set.
“I thought it was a really tough match and I was happy with how I responded when I went down a break in the third.”
In his first match of the year, Norrie hit 32 winners against 17 unforced errors and won 74% of his first service points. Although his opponent also posted some solid stats with the Frenchman hitting 32 winners against 17 unforced errors.
“He’s a class player,” Norrie said of his Van Assche.
“He had such a great year last year. His first serve has improved a lot.
“I was really calm, even down a break in the third, I didn’t panic at all and absolutely took it to him and played to win.
“At 1-1 it was tough games from there. It was 6-1 in the third, but it was a lot closer than that.”
The world No.19 is aiming to win the Auckland title for the first time after settling for runner-up on two previous occasions, including last year. In the quarter-finals, he will play Chilean qualifier Alejandro Tabilo.
Elsewhere, top seed Ben Shelton shrugged off a surprised early exit in Brisbane last week by beating Hungary’s Fábián Marozsán 6-3, 6-4. After losing serve in the first game of the match, he didn’t drop serve again and broke his opponent three times.
“I think I served pretty smart and confidently today,” Shelton commented.
“My serve wasn’t under pressure too many times.
“I got broken the first game of the match and didn’t face many break points after that.
“I was happy with how dominant I started to be on the serve and I felt like I closed out the first set well.”
Awaiting the American in the last eight will be Arthur Fils who beat Nuno Borges 6-2, 6-0.
Norrie, Shelton and Fils are the only seeded players to have made it through to the last eight of this year’s tournament.
