Cameron Norrie defeated a top-20 opponent at Wimbledon for the first time on Wednesday, fighting back from a set down to overcome No.12 seed Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-5.
“It was a very nice win and a high-level match from both of us,” Norrie told reporters in his post-match press conference.
“I think especially in the first set, I was playing well, serving well. Did nothing wrong, but lost 6-4. I just tried to tell myself to keep doing what I'm doing... Don't change too much, hoping his level would drop a little bit. It did ever so slightly. I took my chances when I needed to.”
Norrie, whose best showing at the Championships was a run to the semi-finals in 2022, said he has gained a sense of perspective after missing last summer’s Olympic Games and then the US Open due to a forearm injury, a new experience that forced him to approach his game with a different focus.
“I never had a serious injury in my career ever since I was young,” he explained. “Never taken a lot of time out of the sport. I think it was really difficult for me to come back from that one.
“You think you're okay, then self-consciously you are adapting and changing some of your swings. Just trusting it mentally, I think, was the toughest part because I'd never gone through that before.”
First-round defeats at Queen’s and Eastbourne this year have been long forgotten as Norrie backed up his opening win over Roberto Bautista Agut with defeat of Tiafoe.
And he’s now hoping that his next match - against either Jiri Lehecka or Mattia Bellucci - will be played on the same court as Wednesday's triumph.
“I would love to play on that Court 1 again,” he said. “I just really like how the court plays and how my team is on the very corner of the court there. They have a good view. You feel the connection with your team. You can get fired up. Definitely a little bit more loud than the Centre Court.”
Following Norrie’s victory, home fans on No.1 Court went from loud cheers to worried silence as British No.2 Katie Boulter failed to follow up on her first round upset of No.9 seed Paula Badosa.
Boulter took the first set in a tight tie-break against lucky loser Solana Sierra, but the Argentine mounted an emphatic fight back, in total breaking Boulter’s serve eight times from 10 opportunities, aided by the Briton’s 14 double faults.
It's the second straight year that Boulter has been stopped short in the second round.
Boulter’s compatriot, Sonay Kartal, however, is making No.3 Court her own with back-to-back match wins. She added to her first round defeat of No.20 seed Jelena Ostapenko with a straight sets demolition of Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova in just 67 minutes to book her place in the third round for a second straight year.
“I wanted to back up the run I had here last year,” she said. “I didn’t want people to think it was just a one-off. After the match against Jelena I had so much confidence.”
Kartal was ranked just inside the world’s top 300 last year when she made her way through Qualifying before being beaten by Coco Gauff in the last 32. Now she’s just outside the top 50 and good results are coming thick and fast.
“On the court, I’m pretty tunnel vision,” she explained. “I don’t like to give too much away. The last 12 months I have thrown myself on the scene. Top 50 – so playing all the big matches. I only wanted to play the bigger matches. Playing the best players, day-in, day-out. I feel like I’m playing better and with more confidence.”
And her confidence will have been further boosted following Wednesday’s victory with a hop across to Court 4 where she joined doubles partner Jodie Burrage for a first round victory over Spanish opponents Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers.
I wanted to back up the run I had here last year.
Last week in Eastbourne, Billy Harris got the better of compatriot Norrie in straight sets en route to a quarter-final finish at the Wimbledon warm-up event.
On Monday, the 30-year-old continued his run of form against Dusan Lajovic, beating the experienced Serbian in straight sets. That run came to an end on Wednesday, with defeat for the world No.151 against Portuguese world No.37 Nuno Borges.
“He's a very, very solid baseliner, so every game was a tough game,” Harris said. “My serve wasn't working that well in the first couple of sets. Then the third set I found it a bit more and thought I was getting through my own service games a bit more comfortable.”
Harris will now head to the hard courts of Washington DC for his next tournament with optimism. “I’ll take the positives from the win the other day,” he said. “You know, it's great to get my first win at Wimbledon.”
"It was great to play out there. It was just a shame I couldn't take the match a little bit longer and push him a bit more and see what I could have done.”