Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie make up for Andy Murray absence with US Open first-round victories
British pair reach second round as world No 225 Norrie claims his first ever Grand Slam victory
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Your support makes all the difference.Andy Murray may be missing with a hip injury, but Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie proved here at the US Open that the world No 2 is not the only force in British men’s tennis. Edmund recorded one of the best victories of his career when he beat the No 32 seed, Robin Haase, 6-3, 7-5, 6-3, while Norrie won a match at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time when he beat Dmitry Tursunov, who retired with a knee injury when trailing 7-6, 6-1.
Edmund is often at his best on clay, but the 22-year-old Briton enjoyed his best run at a Grand Slam event when he reached the fourth round on his debut here 12 months ago, with Richard Gasquet and John Isner among his victims. He has also been in good form during the north American summer, having reached the semi-finals of two tournaments.
Edmund, who rose to No 42 in Monday’s updated world rankings list following his run to the semi-finals last week in Winston-Salem, had won just four games in losing his only previous encounter with Haase in Miami two years ago, but the Briton was in charge here from the start in the opening match on Court 10.
Haase had also been having a good summer, having reached the semi-finals at the Montreal Masters, but the 30-year-old Dutchman had trouble handling Edmund’s big serves and thunderous forehands. Edmund, meanwhile, regularly made inroads into Haase’s service games, regularly punishing the world No 36’s second serves.
Although Haase hit 13 aces to Edmund’s three, it was the Briton’s serve that generally proved more effective. Haase saved a break point with a forehand winner in the fourth game, but in the eighth the Dutchman went 0-40 down as Edmund went on the attack. Haase fought back to 30-40 before a wild forehand gave Edmund the first break of the match.
Edmund, who was wearing a garish kit in grey, red and blue, failed to take his first two set points in the following game, Haase saving the first of them with a backhand winner and benefiting from a shanked forehand on the second, but on the third the Briton put away a forehand volley.
Haase had seven break points in the second set but was able to convert only one of them. Edmund broke to lead 4-3 but dropped serve for the first time when he served for the second set at 5-4. Haase, however, dropped serve again and this time Edmund did not let slip his advantage, serving out to love to take a firm hold on the match.
Edmund immediately took command of the third set, breaking serve in the opening game with a volley winner. When Haase served to stay in the match at 3-5 the Dutchman was broken for the fifth and last time when he handed his opponent victory with a fifth double fault.
Edmund will now play the American Steve Johnson, who beat Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 6-4, 7-6. Edmund beat Johnson in three sets in the quarter-finals in Winston-Salem last week.
Norrie, aged 22, played his first Grand Slam tournament last month courtesy of a wild card at Wimbledon, where he lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round. The world No 225 won three matches in qualifying to reach the main draw here and was rewarded with a first-round encounter with Tursunov, who was playing with a “protected” world ranking after a lengthy absence with injury.
The 34-year-old Russian, now ranked No 645 in the world, is a former top 20 player but has won only one main-draw match this this year.
Norrie saved two break points in his opening service game, but was soon putting pressure on Tursunov’s serve. At 2-2 the Briton had two break points of his own but was a little tentative on both of them and Tursunov saved them with a backhand volley and then a forehand winner.
The opening set went to a tie-break, which was close throughout. The Briton hit a backhand long when he had a set point at 6-5, saved a set point at 6-7 when Tursunov made a backhand error and finally won the tie-break 9-7 after exactly an hour when the Russian missed a forehand.
Although Norrie dropped his serve in the opening game of the second set, the Briton went on to win the next six games as Tursunov struggled to cope with a right knee injury. The Russian, who has never gone beyond the third round here, had the knee strapped when he trailed 4-1 and retired two games later after an hour and 32 minutes.
Norrie will now play the No 12 seed, Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta, who beat Evan King, of the United States, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6.
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