British No 1 Cameron Norrie is through to the third round of the French Open for the third successive year after a comfortable straight-sets win over home hope Lucas Pouille.
Norrie, seeded 14th, was much improved from his opening match in which he had to battle through five sets to beat another Frenchman in the form of Benoit Paire. Against Pouille, he romped to a 6-1 6-3 6-3 victory to silence a vocal home crowd.
Ranked as low as 675 in the world after injury and personal problems, Pouille was bidding to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon in 2019, but he wasn’t up to the task against a ruthless and relentless Norrie.
The 27-year-old imposed his game straight away, with a nervous-looking Pouille winning only six points in the first five games of the match. Although the Frenchman saved a set point to avoid the dreaded bagel, Norrie ultimately wrapped up
the first set in less than half an hour.
Pouille swiftly found himself 2-0 down in the second set too after an early break, but the 29-year-old then rattled off three games in a row to bring the Parisian crowd to life on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
It could very easily have become four consecutive games for Pouille as he nudged ahead 0-15 and 15-30 on Norrie’s next service game, only for the Brit to rally and level things up at 3-3.
Lucas Pouille briefly threatened a comeback by rattling off three-straight games in the second set
And just as quickly as Norrie lost the momentum in the match, he regained it as he twice broke Pouille either side of a service hold to love to suddenly claim the second set and crush any thoughts of a comeback.
Norrie raced into a 5-1 lead in the third set, with a controversial non-call of a double-bounce going in the Brit’s favour as he notched up four games in a row.
On serve at 2-1, and finely poised at 30-30 on Pouille’s service game, Norrie failed to get to a ball before it bounced for a second time but it went unnoticed by umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore.
Despite the Frenchman’s complaints and the home crowd also voicing their displeasure as replays showed the ball had indeed bounced twice, Norrie closed in on victory before another mini Pouille revival late on.
He roused himself to break Norrie when he served for the match at 5-1 and then had two more opportunities to break again and get things back on serve as the world No 13 tried to close things out again.
Norrie ‘sorry’ to take out another Frenchman
Norrie, who has never before reached the fourth round at Roland Garros, eventually wrapped things up with his second match point and he will now play either 17th seed Lorenzo Musetti or Alexander Shevchenko in the last 32.
Norrie said after the win: “All credit to Lucas, it’s great to see him back and enjoying his tennis.
“It was a tough battle, tough to get over the line.
“It was a great atmosphere. Sorry to take another Frenchman out, but hopefully you can support me in the next one.
“I’m happy to be through. And I’ll be back ready to fight again on Friday.”
Norrie is the only British player left in the singles after Dan Evans and Jack Draper both lost in the first round and no women made the main draw.
