Britain’s Cameron Norrie beat Jozef Kovalik 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 within the first spherical of the Swedish Open.
A good first set through which neither participant managed to engineer a break level on the clay went to a tiebreak.
Norrie took a 5-3 lead after steering a shot down the road from a Kovalik drop shot after which gained his subsequent two service factors to take the tie-break and first set.
The Briton was 40-15 up on the Slovak’s serve within the second and sixth video games of the second set however didn’t take any of these 4 break factors as his opponent resolutely held.
Nevertheless, Norrie turned up the strain at 5-4 when Kovalik was serving to remain within the match and, after going 40-0 up, took his second match level to say victory in a single hour 35 minutes.
“It was fairly tough. I used to be fairly nervous originally, I would not performed a lot on clay coming straight out of Wimbledon,” mentioned Norrie.
“It was not straightforward and I assumed I managed my serve and competed very well.
“I served unbelievably effectively within the tie break in order that helped get me by it. I performed among the finest video games of the match on the finish.”
Norrie will play Rafael Nadal within the second spherical if the Spanish nice beats Leo Borg of Sweden.