Britain’s Cameron Norrie battled past seventh seed Andrey Rublev to progress to the second round of the Erste Bank Open in Austria.
World number 35 Norrie, 30, won the two-hour encounter 6-2, 6-7(5-7), 6-2. He started strongly, taking the opening set in just 34 minutes and moving 2-0 up in the second set.
Serving for the match at 5-4, Norrie was broken by Rublev, who forced a tie-break and won it to set up a deciding third set. Norrie regrouped, breaking Rublev’s serve early in the final set and securing another break to seal victory.
“It was all-round a really good performance. I was moving well and able to dictate the points,” Norrie said.
“I got a bit tight and tentative when I was serving for the match, but credit to him for staying in and competing.”
In the second round, Norrie will face either Australia’s Alexei Popyrin or Italy’s Matteo Berrettini.
Meanwhile, there was disappointment for British number three Jacob Fearnley, who was beaten by second seed Alexander Zverev in the first round. After losing the first set, Fearnley leveled the match and forced a third-set tie-break, but Zverev prevailed 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(7-5) and will play Italian qualifier Matteo Arnaldi next.
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