World number 12 Alex de Minaur will rue an early break against him during his United Cup tie defeat to Great Britain's Cameron Norrie.
Norrie won 6-4 2-6 7-6(7-2) in the men's singles match, the first of the bout between Australia and Great Britain.
Serving first in the opening set, de Minaur went down a break in the first game and was unable to make up the deficit.
RECAP: Australia v Pakistan Boxing Day Test day four
READ MORE: What 'on edge' star must do to save Test average
READ MORE: Young star shines in near-record Aussie run chase
The Aussie rallied in the second set to dominate but neither player could break each other in the final set.
Norrie proved too strong in the tiebreaker to get Great Britain off to a dream start.
Despite a loss early into de Minaur's summer, seven-time Grand Slam doubles winner John Fitzgerald saw plenty of positives in the 24-year-old's game.
"Really good stuff that was, there was a few ebbs and flows from both players during the match," he said on Nine's coverage.
"Norrie started really well, Alex not so but once Alex had turned that set around it seemed like he had all the momentum. It seemed like he had his nose in front the whole way which he did because he served first but it looked like he might win.
"To Norrie's credit he was fantastic, particularly towards the end."
Australian tennis icon Jelena Dokic also noted de Minaur's ability to come back in the second set.
"What a high-quality match that was, incredible tennis from both. No one was giving up any court position on the baseline, the depth and precision of the shots was just absolutely incredible when there wasn't much in it," she said.
"Alex did incredibly well to come back in this match after actually losing the first set. That's what he does so well; he continues to compete.
"A couple of points here and there in the set, it was about who was going to take time away from each other coming forward and that transition to the net.
Watch the United Cup from December 29 to January 7 live and exclusive on Nine, 9Now and on Stan Sport.
"In the end it was really Norrie in that tiebreaker who had just a bit of a better start where he hit a couple of incredible winners early on in the tiebreaker to actually take that match."
Both men finished fairly even in the statistics, suggesting how even the match was, but Norrie clearly dominated on the first serve with an 89 per cent win rate compared to de Minaur's 78 per cent.
De Minaur finished with three double faults to Norrie's one, with the match-point coming that way from the Aussie.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.