US Open 2022: Cameron Norrie crushes Benoit Paire, Jelena Ostapenko stunned in 1st round

Cameron Norrie on Tuesday, August 30 put on a clinical show and laid down an early marker at US Open 2022. The 7th seed and British No. 1 defeated Benoit Paire 6-0, 7-6 (1), 6-0 in a one-sided first-round match in New York to book a place in the men’s singles second round.

It was a strange outing for Benoit Paire as he was bageled in the first set but he fought back to force a tie-breaker in the second set. Play was briefly halted due to sweltering weather conditions for a brief period of time following which Paire had a chance to serve for the set, leading 5-3.

But the veteran could not capitalise and was broken in the next game and outgunned in the one-sided tiebreak.

Paire lost the first set in 18 minutes and the third set was a worse affair for the Frenchman as he lasted just 15 minutes.

Norrie was bounced out of the year’s final Grand slam in the first round last year and has never made it past the third round.

He has, however, enjoyed success on American hardcourts including winning at Indian Wells in 2021 and claiming the Delray Beach title in February.

Norrie, who improved his win-loss record to 42-19 for the year, will next face Portuguese Joao Sousa or American Mackenzie McDonald in the second round.

ISNER, SABALENKA PROGRESS

Meanwhile, local star John Isner put on a clinical show to beat Federico Delbonis 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 in his first-round match in New York on Tuesday.

However, it was curtains for 16th seed Jelena Ostapenko as she lost in three games (3-6, 6-3, 4-6) to World No. 39 Qinwen Zheng of China.

There were no such troubles for 6th seed Anya Sabalenka who needed just an hour and 28 minutes to win her first-round women’s singles match against Catherine Harrison of the USA 6-1, 6-3.

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