NORRIE BEATS POUILLE IN STRAIGHT SETS TO REACH FRENCH OPEN THIRD ROUND
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.
Djokovic beats battling Fucsovics; stands by Kosovo statementMonfils withdraws from French Open with wrist injuryFrench Open scores & schedule I Men's Draw I Women's Draw I Order of PlayThe 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.
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 FrenchmanNorrie, 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 Italian 17th seed Lorenzo Musetti in the last 32 after he easily beat Alexander Shevchenko 6-1 6-1 6-2.
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."
Tennis should use video replaysNorrie benefited from the umpire missing a double bounce of the ball during his victory over Pouille but he called for video replays to be used in tennis.
TV replays showed Pouille, who lost three games in a row to trail 5-1 after the incident, was right to complain, and both players believe umpires should have the benefit of reviewing their decisions at such moments.
"I think that would be great," said Norrie. "There's been so many different situations over my career where there's been things happening, and I think we definitely can use it to our advantage. We have the technology to do it. I don't know why we're not doing it in all aspects.
"We all make mistakes. The umpires make mistakes. It was a tough call in the moment. From the replay, for me, it looks like she got it wrong."
Pouille did not blame Norrie for playing the shot but also agreed replays should be used.
"You have no obligation," the Frenchman said. "You do whatever you want. When you run to the ball and you hit it, sometimes you don't know if it bounced twice or not. I was pretty sure it did.
"I think [Wednesday] we have so many options to check if it bounced twice or not. It's easy with the video."
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.
