Rain interrupted play on the first day of the Cincinnati Open, but it didn’t stop Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie, who on Thursday downed Croatia’s Dino Prizmic 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in Mason, Ohio.
Norrie withstood a 25-14 disadvantage on winners, rallying from a first-set loss to take control in Set 2. Norrie converted two of three break points in the set and took advantage of seven unforced errors by Prizmic. He then broke Prizmic’s serve in the seventh game of the third set to move in front for good.
Norrie might find the going tougher in the second round, where he faces World No. 3 and top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany.
Another early winner Thursday was Spain’s Martin Landaluce, who shook off a six-match losing streak to down Britain’s Jack Draper 6-3, 7-5. Draper, a former World No. 4 player, couldn’t find traction against the younger Landaluce, who had fewer winners (33-21) but almost half the number of Draper’s unforced errors (47-24).
“I think the important thing today was believing in my shots, believing in my game,” Landaluce said. “I did some big misses at times but that’s OK, because it is how I enjoy playing.”
Other winners included Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante, Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, Argentina’s Mariano Navone and France’s Terence Atmane (via retirement of opponent Marton Fucsovics of Hungary).
–Field Level Media
