French Open 2023: British singles hopes ended as Norrie bows out to Musetti
B
ritish hopes ended within the singles on Friday when Cameron Norrie was outclassed 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 by Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti.
The British No1 had gone into the third-round tie the marginal underdog regardless of being three locations increased ranked at 14th within the event.
And after such a robust begin in opposition to Lucas Pouille within the previous spherical, he by no means actually obtained stepping into his bid to arrange a possible last-16 encounter in opposition to world No1 and event favorite Carlos Alcaraz.
In distinction, Musetti, who had beforehand pushed Novak Djokovic to 5 units on the 2021 French Open, had conceded simply 11 video games in six earlier units.
Norrie was damaged in his opening service recreation, which set the tone in a totally one-sided set in opposition to an opponent who had overwhelmed him after they final confronted one another in Barcelona final month.
Back then, Norrie had picked up the opening set earlier than being step by step unpicked by Musetti and dropping in three units.
On Friday, he was on the backfoot all through. He quashed one thing nearing a wipeout with a fightback within the third set, recovering from a break all the way down to stage to briefly take the ascendancy in that set.
But it was too shortlived as Musetti broke him once more and, within the course of, Norrie suffered a hat-trick of third-round French Open exits.
Norrie apart, it was a reasonably limp displaying from the British singles contingent. Including Brits in qualifying, they boasted simply eight wins from 13 gamers on a floor the place GB gamers have habitually struggled.