Norrie Defeats Paire In Five-Set Thriller At Roland Garros

Cameron Norrie earned a dramatic first-round win on Monday at Roland Garros, where he clawed past Frenchman Benoit Paire in a five-set thriller.

The British lefty fought hard throughout the three-hour, 36-minute clash, triumphing 7-5, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

The 14th seed showed great agility to handle Paire’s court craft and he rallied from 2-4 in the fifth set, demonstrating his high fitness levels to defeat former World No. 18 Paire, who was backed by vocal home support on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

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Norrie is into the second round at the clay-court Slam for the third consecutive year, having advanced to the third round in 2021 and 2022. The 27-year-old is currently 10th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin and will be aiming for a deep run in Paris to climb higher.

He will next face another Frenchman in the form of former Top 10 star Lucas Pouille after the qualifier defeated Jurij Rodionov on Sunday.

In other action, Juan Pablo Varillas earned his first Grand Slam main draw win when he rallied past #NextGenATP Chinese player Shang Juncheng 4-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. The Peruvian will next meet 19th seed Roberto Bautista Agut or China’s Wu Yibing.

Australian Alex de Minaur also advanced, defeating Ilya Ivashka 6-1, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3. The 24-year-old has never advanced past the second round in six previous appearances in Paris, but will aim to change that against Tomas Martin Etcheverry. The Argentine Etcheverry advanced after Jack Draper was forced to retire due to injury when trailing 4-6, 0-1.