AND to think people used to accuse Andy Murray of putting us through the wringer, writes Stewart Fisher. Having been responsible for one of the best Davis Cup debuts of all time, coming back from two sets and a break down to shock Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in Marbella in February, Cameron Norrie last night had the misfortune to serve up one of the tournament’s most agonising home debuts. Having taken the first set 6-0 and the second 7-5, he was seemingly en route for a straightforward straight-sets win against Jurabek Karimov, the World No 434 from Tashkent, either when a break up in that third set or when he had match point at 6-5 in the third set breaker. Instead, things unravelled in spectacular fashion as Karimov, a former Australian Open junior runner-up, recorded his first Davis Cup singles win by a 6-0, 7-5, 6-7 (6), 2-6, 2-6 score line to leave this tie wide open. All in all, it wasn’t how Norrie can have envisaged his maiden appearance in the city of his father David’s birth. “At the end of the day he just played too good,” said Norrie. “I competed as hard as I could so there is nothing more I could ask of myself and there is another chance to get a W on Sunday. But that loss will hurt a lot as I wasn’t just playing for myself, I was playing for my team-mates too.” “There was one big upset on our side and one for them,” was Smith’s assessment of the day. “When you talk about the format, these are the days people are probably going to miss. Rankings going out the window, and guys going out to fight hard for their country. “
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here