Norrie and Murray to meet in all-British second-round showdown at Western & Southern Open

Briton Cameron Norrie has booked an exciting second-round showdown against compatriot Andy Murray at the Western & Southern Open after a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-4 victory over Holger Rune on Monday.

Norrie, the ninth seed, was out-gunned in the service department in the match as Rune racked up more than double the amount of aces (12 to five), but Denmark’s top talent was inconsistent, landing just 57 per cent of his first serves and tallying nine double faults.

Because of Rune’s repeated mistakes, it allowed Norrie to create 10 break point opportunities, while allowing five.

Meanwhile, Murray prevailed 7-6 (7-3) 5-7 7-5 in a big-name matchup against Stan Wawrinka, giving him his 13th win from 22 tries against the Swiss three-time grand slam winner.

Earlier in the day, Roberto Bautista-Agut emerged victorious in his top-30 clash against Francisco Cerundolo 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-2 after the Argentinian committed 50 unforced errors in the two-and-a-half-hour battle.

World number 16 Diego Schwartzman also needed nearly three hours to defeat Serbia’s Alex Molcan 5-7 6-4 6-2, and Russia’s Aslan Karatsev found a couple of timely late breaks to eliminate Brandon Nakashima 7-5 7-5.

Finland’s rising star Emil Ruusuvuori collected another strong win as he handled J.J. Wolf 7-6 (7-2) 6-2, while big-serving American John Isner leaned on tiebreakers to beat Benjamin Bonzi 7-6 (13-11) 3-6 7-6 (7-4) despite creating zero break point opportunities.

Croatia’s Marin Cilic had no issues dispatching in-form Spaniard Jaume Munar 6-3 6-3, and 29-year-old Marcos Giron is one win away from surpassing his career-best ranking of 49 after a strong 6-3 6-4 triumph over veteran David Goffin.

In a contest that featured 28 aces, Frances Tiafoe came out on top 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) against world number 15 Matteo Berrettini, and in the final match of the night it was Denis Shapovalov who was too good for 16th seed Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.