Having witnessed a dramatic encounter between two nationals on Centre Court 24-hours earlier, a similar air of expectancy hung over No.1 Court when Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie, the respective British No.1 and No.2, clashed horns.
I feel like he knew all my patterns of play. His backhand was incredible today. He was not allowing me to do the things I wanted to do Jack Draper
For Norrie, who was replaced by Draper as the top male Brit only a few weeks ago, it was an opportunity to try and put the record straight. And he did so in a manner which augurs well for the future as the two will no doubt be wrangling over the spot over the coming months, if not years.
Norrie’s experience, fitness and dogged character effectively overcame Draper’s power game leaving the 28-year-old Norrie to stride into the third round following his 7-6(3) 6-4 7-6(6) victory.
“I just love this Court 1,” Norrie said following his win. “It’s a special court for me.
“It was not easy coming out here today to play Jack. He’s been playing so well and we’re such good friends off the court.
“We had to put that aside today and I felt like I was a little bit of the underdog coming in today – so I was pretty relaxed coming in.”
Draper, 22, and world ranked 28, is being hailed as Andy Murray’s successor and he will be the first to admit he has still a lot to learn. He certainly needs to build his levels of experience! He might well have had the better run into this year’s Championships collecting a title in Stuttgart whilst Norrie, in contrast, hadn’t won back-to-back matches since April resulting in his world ranking slipping to 42 from 18.
There was little between them for the first 40-minutes, but in the ensuing 8-minute tiebreak, Norrie broke back after dropping the opening point, and immediately broke again to go 2-1 up before storming into a 5-1 lead to claim the first set.
The Norrie game plan was clear – keep him on the run, use the full width of the court and keep the ball in play. Whilst both players worked their socks off, there was no doubt that Norrie had the edge.
That he showed in the second set as he maintained his momentum capturing the Draper twice for 3-0 and within 16-minutes, was 4-0 ahead. Draper regrouped to pull one of those breaks back but couldn’t halt Norrie extend his overall lead.
Much the same patter in the third. \the pair exchanged breaks but crucially, Draper dropped his serve for the third time in the match. It looked all over but in a final effort to prolong the contest, he stopped Norrie crossing the finishing line for 5-all and forced him into a tiebreak in which mini-breaks featured strongly on both sides.
A double fault kept Draper in contention at 5-all but he finally climed his win on his second match point, four points later – courtesy of Draper doble fault.
(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
“I feel like he knew all my patterns of play. His backhand was incredible today. He was not allowing me to do the things I wanted to do,” Draper admitted.
In some ways that wasn’t very surprising. The pair practice together a lot and know their respective games very well but the difference on the day, was Norrie was able to make use of his knowledge.
