Norrie Eliminates Another Frenchman in Metz: The Brit Comes Back to Beat Cazaux and Advances to the Quarter-Finals
Cameron Norrie won a long, uncertain match against Arthur Cazaux in the round of 16 of the ATP 250 tournament in Metz.
One week after his feat against Carlos Alcaraz at the Paris Masters 1000, Norrie gained confidence. The British left-hander, ranked 27th in the world this week, was continuing with the Metz tournament.
After defeating Valentin Royer in the first round (6-3, 6-7, 6-3), the 2021 Indian Wells Masters 1000 winner this time faced Arthur Cazaux, who had knocked out Adrian Mannarino in the previous round (6-3, 7-6).
The two men had faced each other a month ago in the second round in Shanghai. Norrie had won (6-3, 0-6, 7-6), and Cazaux was therefore hoping for revenge. This match was balanced for two sets: Norrie broke serve immediately, before the Frenchman quickly caught up.
In the tie-break, Cazaux left only crumbs for his opponent (7 points to 1), before the servers took precedence over the returners in the second set. This time, the tie-break was tighter, and it was ultimately Norrie who snatched a third set (9 points to 7).
After more than 2 hours of play, the suspense was at its peak, but the world number 69 could not hold on in the long run. A break conceded very early set the tone for the end of the match. Finally, the number 7 seed wins in three sets (6-7, 7-6, 6-2 in 2h45) and advances to the quarter-finals.
He will face a third French player in this tournament, who will be either Kyrian Jacquet or Dan Added. It should be noted that a second player joined the quarter-finals as early as Tuesday evening, and that is Lorenzo Sonego.
In an all-Italian duel against Flavio Cobolli, the world number 42 confirmed his first-round success against Jan Choinski (4-6, 6-4, 6-4). For the second consecutive time, he lost the first set before turning the situation around (2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in 2h07). He will face Daniel Altmaier or Hugo Gaston in the quarter-finals.
