Australian Open: Cameron Norrie dispels injury worries to ease into second round | Tennis News

British No 1 Cameron Norrie dispelled injury worries to ease into the second round of the Australian Open, while Jack Draper vomited into a courtside bin after overcoming the Melbourne heat to win his first five-set match.

Norrie pulled out of the ASB Classic in Auckland, the city where he grew up, last week ahead of his quarter-final because of a left wrist problem.

Norrie admitted he was concerned with so little time to recover but there were no causes for alarm in a 6-4 6-4 6-2 victory over Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas as he became the first British winner of the fortnight.

“I was lucky enough to be able to manage the practice and give myself the best chance to be ready to compete and was able to still do a lot of movement and a lot of fitness before, so it was good,” said Norrie.

It was a kind draw for Norrie, although 81st-ranked Varillas did push Alexander Zverev to five sets in the first round here last year before going on to make the fourth round of the French Open.

Norrie looked a little tentative to start with but settled into a rhythm of lengthy baseline rallies and finally took his sixth opportunity to break serve in the fifth game.

The 19th seed took full control of the contest in the second set, finding more penetration on his groundstrokes and opening up a 5-1 lead.

Varillas fought back with three games in a row but Norrie served it out at the second time of asking and was untroubled in the third to set up a meeting with world No 133 Giulio Zeppieri.

Norrie is wary of the Italian qualifier, saying: “I actually played him once in Rome and he beat me last time there. Young, talented player. Lefty. I watched the end of his match. He played really well. He competes really well. Kind of plays a little bit similar to me.

“It’s definitely going to be a tough match. Looking for some revenge from last time, because he beat me really easily last time.”

Fellow Brit Draper overcame struggles with the Melbourne heat to defeat Marcos Giron in his first five-set match.

It is a measure of how inexperienced the 22-year-old still is at the highest level that he had never previously played a match that went the distance, and he looked in serious trouble at two sets to one down against American Giron.

But Draper has been working hard on his physical conditioning and it paid off as he fought back to win 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-0 6-2 after three hours and 20 minutes.

As soon as he had shaken hands with Giron after a final gruelling rally, he ran to the bin to be sick and it was several minutes before he was able to walk off the court.

Dan Evans, Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu play later on Tuesday.

Norwegian 11th seed Casper Ruud fired off 42 winners as he eased past Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1 6-3 6-1 in just over two hours.

But Ruud’s preparations for his second-round match will have to wait until he has nailed down the decor of his new home.

“I actually have a Zoom call with an interior architect tonight. I’m going to have to prepare for that and think about other things,” Ruud said. “Fabric, colour, mixing, blah blah blah. It’s a bit different than tennis.”

Brisbane champion Grigor Dimitrov improved to 6-0 in 2024 with a comeback 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-1) 6-2 win against Marton Fucsovics.

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