Britain's Cameron Norrie beats Jozef Kovalik 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in the first round of the Swedish Open.
A tight first set in which neither player managed to engineer a break point on the clay went to a tiebreak.
Norrie took a 5-3 lead after steering a shot down the line from a Kovalik drop shot and then won his next two service points to take the tie-break and first set. The Briton was 40-15 up on the Slovak's serve in the second and sixth games of the second set but failed to take any of those four break points as his opponent resolutely held.
However, Norrie turned up the pressure at 5-4 when Kovalik was serving to stay in the match and, after going 40-0 up, took his second match point to claim victory in one hour 35 minutes. "It was quite difficult. I was pretty nervous at the beginning, I'd not played much on clay coming straight out of Wimbledon," said Norrie."I served unbelievably well in the tie break so that helped get me through it. I played one of the best games of the match at the end.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Eastbourne 2024: Cameron Norrie's poor run continues with first-round defeatCameron Norrie's disappointing season continues with a first-round defeat by Emil Ruusuvuori at Eastbourne.
Read more »
Cameron Norrie's poor form continues ahead of Wimbledon with first-round exit in EastbourneCameron Norrie's poor form ahead of Wimbledon continued as he crashed out of the Rothesay International with a first-round defeat to world No 88 Emil Ruusuvuori.
Read more »
Cameron Norrie’s poor form continues with first-round exit at EastbourneThe former British number one has slipped outside the top 40 after losing nine of his previous 15 matches.
Read more »
Cameron Norrie’s poor form continues with first-round exit at EastbourneThe former British number one has slipped outside the top 40 after losing nine of his previous 15 matches.
Read more »
Wimbledon: Cameron Norrie beats Jack Draper as Novak Djokovic survives scare against Jacob FearnleyCameron Norrie won the all-British clash with rising star Jack Draper, while Novak Djokovic overcame a terrific fightback from Jacob Fearnley at Wimbledon on Thursday.
Read more »
Wimbledon 2024 results: Cameron Norrie stuns British number one Jack Draper, Novak Djokovic beats Jacob FearnleyCameron Norrie stuns British number one Jack Draper with an assured second-round win at Wimbledon.
Read more »