Cameron Norrie news: British No 1 through to second round at Italian Open

Italian Open
Cameron Norrie celebrates

Brit Cameron Norrie is through to the second round of the Italian Open after seeing off 18-year-old wildcard Luca Nardi 6-4, 6-4 – but this almost turned out not to be the case.

Although Norrie’s service game helped him immensely during the game, as he won 87% of his first serve points, he was down 15-40 in the first set but he didn’t let the crowd who were supporting their home grown talent get him down.

The 26-year-old managed to get to deuce thanks to two great serves and then he broke in the first game of the second set and eventually he carried this advantage through to the end of the match to bag the win.

“I need to clean up a lot of errors,” the world No 11 told Amazon Prime after the tie.

“But I was pleased with how I turned it around after that start though.

“I came out very, very nervous and very tight for whatever reason, I was just missing a lot of second-serve returns and not playing as aggressive as I would like.”

Norrie has been in mixed form so far this season as he failed to make it past the first round at the Australian Open, he crashed out of the Monte Carlo Masters after the opening round but he won the Delray Beach Open and he managed to make it to the final of the Mexican Open.

The four time title winner will face former US Open champion Marin Cilic in the next round at the Italian Open, and could face the likes of Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal if he manages to progress through the competition.

The Rome Masters tournament wraps up on Sunday a week before the French Open kicks off at Roland Garros to give players time to rest and recover before the second Grand Slam of the year gets underway.

Cameron Norrie

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