Cameron Norrie recovered from a sloppy begin to earn a primary profession win over Andy Murray of their all-British conflict and attain the Cincinnati third spherical.
Norrie, 26, received 3-6 6-3 6-4 in what was solely the British primary’s second aggressive assembly with Murray.
Murray, 35, took benefit of errors from Norrie to win the primary set, however pale late within the decider because the world quantity 11 accomplished the fightback.
Norrie faces American teenager Ben Shelton, who beat Casper Ruud, subsequent.
Shelton, 19, was given a wildcard and reached the final 16 with a 6-3 6-3 win over Norwegian fifth seed Ruud.
Australia’s Nick Kyrgios misplaced for under the third time in 19 matches when he was overwhelmed 6-3 6-2 by American Taylor Fritz.
Wimbledon semi-finalist Norrie and former world primary Murray have been adopted onto the centre courtroom on the Western and Southern Open by British ladies’s primary Emma Raducanu.
The 19-year-old US Open champion thrashed Belarus’ former world primary Victoria Azarenka, simply 18 hours after she additionally comprehensively beat American nice Serena Williams in Tuesday’s evening session.
Cramps a ‘massive concern’ for Murray
Whereas Murray’s season has once more been punctuated by setbacks, notably the belly damage suffered within the Stuttgart remaining and a second-round exit at Wimbledon, it has been extra encouraging than others not too long ago.
His problem since getting back from career-saving hip surgical procedure in 2019 has been spending extra time on the courtroom – and the world quantity 47 has now performed extra matches in 2022 than any 12 months since 2016.
The goal after dropping to twentieth seed John Isner at Wimbledon was bettering his rating sufficiently to be among the many seeds on the upcoming US Open.
After back-to-back defeats in Washington and Montreal, a deep run was required in Cincinnati to attain that and his already-slim hopes have been ended by the defeat to Norrie.
Murray misplaced serve within the first sport of the match earlier than discovering rhythm to win the opening set towards one in every of his successors as Britain’s main males’s participant.
Norrie lower out the errors to take the second set and crucially fought off three break factors, with Murray damaging a string on the primary after which pushing a brief forehand extensive on the final, at 3-2 within the decider.
In consequence, the set remained delicately poised within the latter phases till Murray started to wrestle bodily below constant stress from his youthful opponent.
“At occasions I felt like I performed very well after which at occasions did not. My consistency possibly was not the place I might need it,” Murray stated.
“However there was some constructive tennis in there at occasions. I positively had sufficient alternatives to win that match.”
Murray suffered from cramp late in a gruelling opening success towards fellow veteran Stan Wawrinka on Monday and wanted remedy on his higher legs after Norrie broke for a 5-4 lead.
Now beginning to decelerate between factors, Murray confirmed his famend struggle, however produced some drained photographs as Norrie sealed victory.
“It is a massive concern for me, it is one thing I want to deal with and discover a answer for,” added Murray.
“No-one is aware of precisely why cramps occur. There are various causes, whether or not it is hydration, meals, fatigue, lack of conditioning, stress.
“You’ll want to attempt to perceive what is going on on there.”
Beating Andy ‘large for me’ – Norrie
Norrie and Murray, who’ve usually practised collectively and shall be Davis Cup team-mates subsequent month, shared a heat embrace on the web after the left-hander clinched victory in two hours and 37 minutes.
“It is a large win for me, beating Andy for the primary time,” ninth seed Norrie stated on Amazon Prime.
“I believe there was not a lot in it. I managed to search out myself at one-set all, I do not know the way.
“The final set was a battle, he had some possibilities and I performed a few good factors.”
Following his breakout Grand Slam run at Wimbledon, Norrie continued his good kind by reaching the Los Cabos remaining, the place he misplaced to world primary Daniil Medvedev, and the final 16 on the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Norrie’s win towards Murray was his thirty ninth on the ATP Tour this 12 months, a tally solely bettered by Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“It got here all the way down to just a little little bit of physicality and it did not actually assist him,” added Norrie.
“He was struggling just a little bit in direction of the top and I simply tried to get the ball in.
“I’m nonetheless fighting the situations just a little bit and looking for rhythm. I simply bought by way of with my angle and stayed constructive.”
