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IMAGE: Cameron Norrie credited his pre-season coaching for with the ability to dictate the baseline exchanges in opposition to Rafael Nadal within the United Cup in Sydney on Saturday. {Photograph}: Brendon Thorne/Getty Photographs
Rafael Nadal’s preparations for his Australian Open title defence received off to a wobbly begin as Cameron Norrie handed him a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat within the United Cup on Saturday to provide Britain a 1-0 lead over Spain within the combined crew match.
The 22-times Grand Slam champion, who lifted the trophy in Melbourne Park this yr and added one other French Open title in an in any other case injury-ravaged season, eased by means of the primary set however gifted Norrie a means again into the competition within the subsequent.
Nadal dug himself out of a gap with an ace to carry for 2-1 within the decider however surrendered his serve shortly after as world quantity 14 Norrie received sharper as the competition wore on and held on for the primary win over the world quantity two in 5 makes an attempt.
“It was fairly loopy… I used to be considering I’ve by no means gained a set in opposition to him earlier than and I needed to come back out and firstly try this and I needed to keep tremendous affected person,” Norrie mentioned in his on-court interview. “It was an excellent bodily match.
“I actually loved it, it was large to get by means of that one and eventually beat him. It is an effective way to finish the yr.”
Norrie credited his pre-season coaching for with the ability to dictate the baseline exchanges at Ken Rosewall Area.
“I’ve had a extremely good off season, performed lots of matches and it has been good for me. I felt like I used to be discovering actually good depth in my photographs and dictated the play… I wasn’t letting him do an excessive amount of injury together with his forehand,” Norrie added.
Ladies’s world primary Iga Swiatek had no bother in her season opener as she dismantled Yulia Putintseva 6-1 6-3 to provide Poland a 1-0 lead over Kazakhstan in Brisbane.
Earlier, Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka claimed the most important win of his profession by gorgeous world quantity 12 Alexander Zverev 6-4 6-2, earlier than Marie Bouzkova beat Jule Niemeier 6-2 7-5 to provide her crew a 2-0 lead over Germany.
Enjoying in his first aggressive match since surgical procedure to repair his ankle ligaments following an damage at Roland Garros, Zverev regarded wanting health and struggled on his serve with eight double faults to go down.
Brazil took a 2-0 lead over Norway as Beatriz Haddad Maia and Felipe Meligeni Alves sealed comfy wins. Belgium and Bulgaria have been locked at 1-1.
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