Cam Norrie crashes out of French Open to Lorenzo Musetti masterclass
Cam Norrie crashed out of Roland Garros to Italian Lorenzo Musetti on Friday night – and the one comfort was that the British No.1 lasted longer in Paris than any of the French gamers.
The flat Wimbledon semi-finalist was outclassed on the clay 6-1 6-2 6-4 by the world No.18 in two hours and eight minutes
There have been solely three British males within the singles and Norrie is the final to depart. At least all 27 dwelling gamers had misplaced by the second spherical – and Norrie beat two of them.
But the No.14 seed has now misplaced within the third spherical for 3 consecutive years right here – beginning with Rafa Nadal – and he was crushed on the identical Court Simone-Mathieu right here final 12 months by Karen Khachanov.
The world No.13 beat world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz on clay in Rio in February throughout his robust begin to the 12 months however he has struggled in the course of the European claycourt season.
But other than his ruthless show in opposition to world No.675 Lucas Pouille within the second spherical, Norrie has not carried out effectively right here and continues to wrestle with the ball toss on his serve.
He wanted 5 units to see off world No.149 Benoit Paire within the first spherical and solely made one break of serve whereas the dashing Musetti cleverly took the tempo of his pictures to the British counterpuncher.
Norrie has work to do earlier than Wimbledon begins on July 3.
The Italian had received their earlier assembly in Barcelona in April and was at all times on high within the French capital.
Starting simply after 6pm native time in a swirling wind, Norrie was damaged in his first service sport when he hit a forehand lengthy.
He was 0-3 down after 14 minutes and he modified his shirt to try to change his luck and he held his serve to win his first sport. But Musetti broke once more and took his second set level with a service winner after solely 31 minutes.needs to be sad.”
Norrie dropped his serve once more at 2-2 within the second set when he slapped a weak forehand into the online on the third break level.
Both of Musetti’s defeats at Roland Garros got here after he was two units up.
He retired in opposition to then world No.1 Novak Djokovic within the fourth spherical in 2021 after which succumbed to Stefanos Tsitsipas within the first spherical lsat 12 months.
The Italian broke the Brit within the first sport of the third set however from 1-3 down, Norrie made his first break of serve after one hour and 42 minutes and lead 4-3 – and he had a break level to steer 5-3 however despatched a forehand lengthy.
At 4-4, Musetti took his third breakpoint with a forehand go after Norrie performed serve-and-volley on his second serve.
And the Italian served out the match to succeed in the fourth spherical with out dropping a set.
Earlier the technical director of the French Tennis Federation held an inquest within the Roland Garros press room.
“The results are not good, as you can see, but I don’t think the Federation can be held responsible for everything,” stated Nicolas Escude. “The first ones to be each penalised and in a method answerable for the outcomes are the gamers. They needs to be sad.”