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Cameron Norrie always enjoys going to New Zealand where he grew up, a point he made after opening his account at the ASB Classic in Auckland.
It was definitely a tough match playing against Fabian,. I had a tough one against him last year at a Challenger Ben Shelton
For an opener, it wasn’t a walk in the park for the British No.1, who had to battle for two-hours and 28-minutes to get past the French qualifier, Luca Van Assche 6-3 6-7(6) 6-1 and book his place in the quarter finals.
Norrie, the second seed, broke to go 4-2 up in the first set, which proved to be the decisive moment in the opener but failed to convert a match point in the second set tie-break.
Van Assche then punished him by taking the set at his third attempt, having thrown away two set points earlier in the set.
And it didn’t look good for the Brit in the decider as the Frenchman broke Norrie straight away. However, Norrie fought back immediately to win six games in a row to run off with set and the match.
He next faces another, qualifier this time from Chile, Alejandro Tabilo who took out the Dutchman Boric van de Zandschulp 7-5 6-3.
Ben Shelton plays a backhand in his match against Fabian Marozsan
(Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)
The top seed is American Ben Shelton and he had a more comfortable opener for his first match of the tournament.
He defeated Hungary’s Fabian Marozan 6-3 6-4 for his place in the last eight where he will meet Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena who overcame the 7th seed from Austria Sebastian Ofner 7-5 6-3.
“It was definitely a tough match playing against Fabian,” Shelton said in his on-court interview. “I had a tough one against him last year at a Challenger and he beat Carlos Alcaraz on arguably his favourite surface last year. So really cool to have a matchup against him, he’s a great player and I know he will have a long future on this Tour. A fun match, but happy to get through it.”
Frenchman Arthur Fils, the sixth seed, continued his solid start to the year with a solid 6-2 6-0 win over Portugal’s Nuno Borges which he achieved in 57-minutes.
His next opponent is Germany’s Daniel Altmaier, who upset fourth seed from Canada, Felix Auger Aliassime 7-6(9) 7-5 saving four set points before clinching a marathon first-set tie-break that set him on course for a two-hour, 35-minute victory.
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