Spoiler:
Cameron Norrie maintained his strong record at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon Thursday, edging Argentine Sebastian Baez 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the semi-finals at the ATP 250 event for the third time.
The Briton, who advanced to the final in the South of France last season, demonstrated his impressive fitness levels by hanging in rallies and forcing the 21-year-old into errors with his depth in their first ATP Head2Head meeting. Norrie recovered from squandering a 5-3 lead in the third set and three match points to eventually advance after two hours and 40 minutes.
“All credit to Sebi, he played a really good match. The rallies were so tough and it was really tough to finish it off at the end but I managed to do it. Thank you to everyone for staying, I really appreciate that,” Norrie said in his on-court interview.
“It is one of those matches where you have some nerves, so to get over the line you take a lot of confidence from that and I showed my emotion at the end,” Norrie added. “It means a lot to get through a match like that. I really enjoyed the battle.”
The top seed is now two victories away from capturing his second title of the season, after triumphing in Delray Beach. Norrie also enjoyed a run to the last four in Lyon on debut in 2018, but he has never lifted a trophy at a clay-court ATP Tour event.
The 26-year-old will continue to try and change that record when he takes on #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune in the last four.
The Briton, who advanced to the final in the South of France last season, demonstrated his impressive fitness levels by hanging in rallies and forcing the 21-year-old into errors with his depth in their first ATP Head2Head meeting. Norrie recovered from squandering a 5-3 lead in the third set and three match points to eventually advance after two hours and 40 minutes.
“All credit to Sebi, he played a really good match. The rallies were so tough and it was really tough to finish it off at the end but I managed to do it. Thank you to everyone for staying, I really appreciate that,” Norrie said in his on-court interview.
“It is one of those matches where you have some nerves, so to get over the line you take a lot of confidence from that and I showed my emotion at the end,” Norrie added. “It means a lot to get through a match like that. I really enjoyed the battle.”
The top seed is now two victories away from capturing his second title of the season, after triumphing in Delray Beach. Norrie also enjoyed a run to the last four in Lyon on debut in 2018, but he has never lifted a trophy at a clay-court ATP Tour event.
The 26-year-old will continue to try and change that record when he takes on #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune in the last four.