Britain's interest in Australian Open singles ended with defeat for Cameron Norrie against Rafael Nadal in the third round on Saturday; Spanish second seed Nadal will face Italy's Fabio Fognini next as Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev among others to progress
Saturday 13 February 2021 14:35, UK
Rafael Nadal overcame a spirited performance from Cameron Norrie to reach the Australian Open fourth round and end British interest in the singles.
The Spanish second seed, targeting an outright men's record 21st Grand Slam title, continued his progress with a 7-5 6-2 7-5 win over world No 69 Norrie in an empty Rod Laver Arena.
Nadal, 34, is yet to lose a set at Melbourne Park after his opening three matches and will next face Italian Fabio Fognini, who beat Australian Alex de Minaur 6-4 6-3 6-4.
The 2009 champion said Saturday was the first day he felt "less pain" in his back and he was able to return to his normal service motion again as he stopped Norrie from reaching the last-16 of a Grand Slam for the first time.
"First day I feel an improvement, and that's the most important thing for me today, more than any other thing," Nadal said in his post-match press conference.
The 34-year-old added: "Today is the first day that I started to serve again my normal serve. But yesterday I didn't practice so today just warming up with the normal movement.
"The biggest victory is the back is better for the first day."
After an apprehensive start, in which Norrie saved break points in his first two service games, the 25-year-old Briton forged ahead with a break of his own to lead 3-2.
Nadal responded with a break to love, before Norrie's level dipped as he was unable to take the first set into a tiebreak after being broken for the second time in the 12th game.
The world No 2 dominated the second set, but Norrie, who found himself the only British representative in the last 32 of the main draws for the second time in the last three Grand Slams, showed impressive resolve during a tight third set.
Norrie saved two break points in his opening service game of the set and appeared set to take it to a tiebreak, only for Nadal, who made 35 unforced errors, to break his unseeded opponent to seal victory in two hours and 14 minutes.
Norrie said, despite some frustration over his performance at periods in the match, he believes he can take belief from his run to the third round going forward.
"A lot of positives to take and a lot of things that I want to get better at and a lot of stuff I want to tidy up in my game," said Norrie, who intends to travel to play in Singapore later this month.
"But, I think I want more from myself. It was obviously tough to play him, but, it was a good experience altogether."
Daniil Medvedev won a five-set match for the first time in his career as the fourth seed survived a scare which saw mid-match bust-up that led to his coach walking out.
The Russian, who extends his winning streak to 17 matches, including his successful run to the title at the 2020 season-ending ATP Finals, looked in fine fettle against Filip Krajinovic, leading by two sets.
But the Serbian hit back to send it for a decider, only for Medvedev to highlight why he is a favourite for the tournament as he won 6-3 6-3 4-6 3-6 6-0.
Medvedev is known as a volatile character and this is not the first time that Gilles Cervara has seen enough, with the Russian frequently screaming towards his box after losing a two-set lead.
Medvedev felt it was the right decision, saying: "I don't know what was going through his head, but at least what he said is that he was sure I'm going to win, and he just wanted to leave me alone to be calm.
"Sometimes maybe I will disagree but this time for sure it was a good thing to do. It happens once per year, two times per year maximum, maybe once in two years, but today it helped, and definitely we're going to talk about it a little bit, but there is not a big deal."
The Russian will next face American Mackenzie McDonald, who is through to the last 16 at a Grand Slam for the first time.
Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas put in a dominant performance to thrash his friend Mikael Ymer 6-4 6-1 6-1 to canter into the fourth round.
Tsitsipas, a semi-finalist at Melbourne Park in 2019, will next meet Italian ninth seed Matteo Berrettini after he got the
better of three tie-breaks against Karen Khachanov.
Tsitsipas and Ymer were practice partners during the two-week quarantine period, and the Greek felt that helped him with fans absent from Melbourne Park.
Tsitsipas said: "I played a lot of practice sets with him, which obviously helped, and it was similar conditions for me today entering the court playing the third-round match as during quarantine."
Seventh seed Andrey Rublev is another highly-fancied player and he continued his smooth progress through the draw with a 7-5 6-2 6-3 victory over veteran Feliciano Lopez.
As expected, defending champion Novak Djokovic did not practise on Saturday after suffering what he believed to be a stomach muscle tear during his five-set win over Taylor Fritz.
The top seed is due to face Milos Raonic on Sunday evening but expressed doubts that he would be able to take to the court.
Australian Open boss Craig Tiley was, however, confident that the Serbian will be able to overcome his injury and compete.
"We'll see him. He's resilient, he's tough," Tiley told Australian broadcaster Channel Nine. "He'll wake up today and he'll figure out what it is and he'll go and get the appropriate treatment. The way he was, those two sets, I was pretty surprised.
"But I've seen him play here, this is his court, he gets comfortable on it and he just picks his game up and up and he's that good."
Meanwhile, defending men's doubles champions Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram came through a deciding set to beat Serbia's Tomislav Brkic and Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi 6-3 4-6 6-2.
The fifth seeds will play Australia's John Peers and Michael Venus of New Zealand next.
Neal Skupski and his brother Ken were knocked out with a 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 defeat by Australian John Millman and Brazilian Thiago Monteiro.
Fellow Britons Luke Bambridge and Dom Inglot also exited the tournament at the second round after a 6-4 7-5 loss to ninth seeds Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek.
There was also disappointment for Dan Evans and his Moldovan partner Radu Albot as they were beaten 6-1 7-6 (7-2) by seventh seeds Horia Tecau and Marcelo Melo.
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