Cameron Norrie had to overcome both Constant Lestienne and being sledged by Andy Murray fans before winning through to the third round of the Australian Open.
Following a frustrating day of delays, the British No 1 saw his match moved to Court 13 with a belated 10.15pm start. It was more than three hours later when he finally overcame the Frenchman, winning 6-3 3-6 7-6 6-3 to set up a clash with Czech star Jiri Lehecka on Friday.
But perhaps the delay allowed some Brits to spend a little too much time at the bar, as there was a rowdy atmosphere when the Wimbledon semi-finalist finally got going. However, it is fair to say not all chants were in favour of the 11th seed.
Three supporters barracked Norrie, who has a Scottish father, with: “You’re just a s**t Andy Murray!” before they were swiftly ejected by security. On the way out, they then took aim at his opponent, adapting a famous English football fan song to the lyrics of “Lestienne’s going home."
Their removal initially calmed things down, but in the fourth set security was called again. One local fan shouted out: “C’mon Cam. You’re world No.11. Show the ****” which prompted Croatian umpire Marija Cicak to take action.
He got out of the chair to cross the court and tick off the supporter, before calling over two burly security guards. By the time Norrie secured his win at 1.28am, there were six armed policemen patrolling Albert Park, no doubt relieved Lestienne was unable to force a deciding set. The Grand Slam debutant himself was warned for sarcastically chanting “Let’s go Norrie, let’s go” when he won points to mock fans.
Afterwards, Norrie said: “In the first set there were a lot of English fans actually. And they had the football chants going which was good fun and, then obviously they got kicked out. I could still hear them in the second set, like over here somewhere.
"But it was a great atmosphere. It's great obviously on one of the outside courts for them to stay around and support and watch and create an atmosphere especially playing so late and cold and everything so it definitely spurred me on and got me through it, especially in that third set."
Asked if the crowd helped or hampered him, the 27-year-old opted for middle ground: “I don’t know if it helped me, it just created a really good atmosphere for the match and made the match really interesting. I don't know what you thought but I thought that was good fun for everyone.”
