Cameron Norrie has taken the first step towards at last winning the ASB Classic by defeating Luca Van Assche 6-3 6-7 6-1 in their second round match on Wednesday night.
A two-time Classic finalist, Norrie is desperate to win the tournament he grew up watching and with so many seeds falling early this week, the world No 19 is in with a great opportunity to do that.
The 19-year-old Van Assche reached No 1 in the world as a junior and defeated Arthur Fils in the final of the boy’s French Open in 2021, so he’s certainly a player who looks to have a great career ahead of him and made his opponent work hard for this victory.
Norrie got a break in the sixth game of the opening set and on his first set point at 5-3, a big ace out wide took him halfway towards winning this match.
In the second set tiebreaker he had a match point with Van Assche serving at 5-6.
Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
For two sets Luca Van Assche kept the match close against Cameron Norrie.
However, the French teenager won the next three points to send the match to a deciding set.
There would have been worries in Norrie’s camp when he got broken in the first game, but then he romped home, winning six games in a row.
“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.”
Once Norrie got on a roll in the third set, there was no stopping him and he used his experience to not give Van Assche any hope of finding a way back.
“He’s a class player,” Norrie said.
“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.”
Norrie grew up watching matches at Stanley Street, and it was seeing the stars on Centre Court that inspired him to be a professional.
The 28-year-old has played in the biggest tennis stadiums around the world, but for him, there’s something memorable about playing an night match in Auckland.
“It’s so special and they do it so well here,” Norrie said.
“Everyone’s enjoying themselves, they’re eating food.
“There are a lot of people here who know me from playing junior tennis here. So it’s special to put a performance on, play really well in front of everyone and keep my chances alive of going all the way to the final again.”
Later in the evening Michael Venus and Jamie Murray lost 7-6 4-6 10-4 to Sander Gille and Jordan Vliegen, a result which ends New Zealand’s involvement in this year’s Classic.
After battling so well in the second set, Murray and Venus never really got into the super tiebreak.
“Sometimes that happens, I made some unforced errors early on in the tiebreaker and when you get behind like that, sometimes it can spiral quickly and be done with,” Venus said.
“That’s kind of what happened, but it was the first match of the year for us. We’ve played those guys a lot of times and it’s always a close match. So we knew it would be tonight.
“I could have returned a bit better. We had a couple of half chances, a couple of set points in the first set. Maybe if we got those, we win in straight sets, but they also had break points too.
“That’s how it goes and we just need to get ready for Australia.”
Meanwhile, New Zealand-born Lulu Sun has advanced to the second round of qualifying at the Australian Open, after beating Britain’s Heather Watson 6-4 6-3.
In the second round she will play against Su Jeong Jang from South Korea.
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