Cameron Norrie was buffeted by the winds of fortune and form but still emerged from his third round tie flying the flag. The British No 3 saw off the unheralded Italian Mattia Bellucci in straight sets.
A match that will not linger long in the memory was played out in front of a crowd desperate for the opportunity to get behind a home talent, but given very few occasions to do so.
Unforced errors came hard and fast, advantages were regularly built only to be squandered. Both men seemed to be slightly hemmed in by the occasion, liberated only when averting a small moment of calamity.
Norrie will hardly care. Reaching the fourth round of a grand slam for the fifth time is not an achievement to be taken lightly and a contest against the Chilean Nicolás Jarry will not be overly frightening. There is a case to be made that it is only onwards and upwards for the world No 61.
As Norrie reaches the first weekend of the tournament, memories of his run to the semi-finals here three years ago – he lost to the eventual champion, Novak Djokovic – will also be increasingly rekindled. With British prospects reduced over the past two days, he will once again have the focus of a nation’s attention upon him.
“It was a tough match,” Norrie said. “I didn’t start as well as I would have liked. I didn’t really flinch like the match before. I just held my nerve and played well, kind of stole that first set then ran away with the match after that.
“I’m not going to change anything. I’m feeling the ball really well. I practised for about 10, 15 minutes yesterday. I stopped. I was feeling good.
“Expectations are only ever expectations. I want to just keep taking care of what I can. I’ve come to enjoy this tournament. I want to keep doing that and keep giving people, my friends, my family, my team, something to cheer about.”
The 23-year-old Italian held his own serve for a few games, but with the score at 4-3 he lost whatever composure he had to squander a service game to a delighted Norrie, who gave a roar in celebration.
The tie-break was the first set in microcosm, errors passed back and forth, until at 5-5 Norrie pulled off a magical mini-break with a backhand passing shot that nipped just inside the baseline. To seal the deal, Bellucci skewed a return off the frame of his racket for the set.
There was consistent applause around No 1 Court, if stopping short of delight, but the sense was that the match would run more easily towards Norrie and so it proved. Bellucci was clearly having more doubts the longer things ran on and while the Briton’s game did not noticeably go up a level his opponent could not be relied upon to punish mistakes.
After an exchange of breaks early in the second set, the 29-year-old bore down on his opponent at 3-3, consistently playing the ball into the backhand, a situation that led to the Italian taking risks to escape and playing shots that seemed magnetically attracted to the net.
The break duly came and Norrie had the opportunity to grind things out. He made hard work of it and at 5-4, serving for the set, was dragged to deuce once again thanks to a series of errors. But one clinical volley was enough to double his lead.
The final set went by in a blink, but followed a familiar format. With Bellucci now all over the place, Norrie rushed to a 5-1 lead but then lacked the consistency to land the killer blow.
Bellucci held serve and broke back and it appeared he was not yet finished. Come the next service game and the four unforced errors, it turned out that he was. In total the Italian made 58 unforced errors, Norrie 32, which is exactly the average number for the men’s draw so far.
Walking round the court as his opponent stuffed his bags, Norrie offered some polite applause and the crowd reciprocated. There was a sense hanging in the air of something missing, of a challenge yet to catch fire. But at least Norrie still has a chance to find the spark.
