Cameron Norrie rallies to beat Spain's Bernabe Zapata Miralles in three sets and advance to Rio Open final
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Updated 25/02/2023 at 23:25 GMT
After 25 minutes on the court on Saturday, Cameron Norrie could have been forgiven for already casting his mind forward to the Rio Open final, so dominant had his first set performance been, but Bernabe Zapata Miralles had other ideas. Norrie's Spanish opponent produced a dominant second set, blowing the Brit away to set up a decisive third, but Norrie won through.
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Spain's Bernabe Zapata Miralles gave Cameron Norrie a scare before the Brit recovered to win in three sets 6-2 3-6 7-6(3) and advance to the Rio Open final
Zapata Miralles had beaten fellow Spaniard Jaume Munar and Albert Ramos Vinolas as well as Argentinian veteran Francisco Cerundolo to advance to the semi-finals, while Norrie had beaten lucky loser Juan Cerundolo, Brazilian Thiago Monteiro, and Bolivian Hugo Dellien.
Norrie split the opening games with his Spanish opponent, with each holding serve.
The Brit then got an early break in the next game, before holding to take a 3-1 lead.
Zapata Miralles was struggling with his first serve and Norrie took advantage. He had two break points with the chance to go 4-1 up in the set. The Spaniard rallied briefly but Norrie pressed home his advantage to take a double break lead.
Norrie then blitzed through another service game to be 5-1 up after just 25 minutes on the court.
On his next service game, Zapata Miralles saved four set points. Seven times the pivotal game moved back to deuce, and eventually the Spaniard held serve to move to 5-2.
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Norrie, serving for the set, zoomed into a 40-15 lead and, on his sixth set point, converted. Just under 40 minutes had passed, and Norrie was riding high.
Zapata Miralles held serve confidently to start the second set. The Spaniard then broke Norrie's serve for the first time in the match, before holding to love to move into a somewhat surprising 3-0 lead in the second set.
Norrie recovered his composure to hold in his next service game, reducing the arrears to 3-1 in the second but the Spaniard hit right back, holding to move into a 4-1 lead.
Norrie was teetering and had to save two break points in his next service game, but he held on to make it 4-2.
After the Spaniard held once again to move to 5-2, Norrie was serving to stay alive in the set.
He fired off an ace to start the game and ripped through it to hold to love but the Spaniard stayed hot and served out the set to level the match.
After a prolonged bathroom break, Norrie returned to the court reinvigorated. He took the opening game of the third set confidently.
Zapata Miralles held his own serve, and then broke Norrie again.
Norrie got his chance in the fourth game of the set, breaking Zapata Miralles' serve for the first time in over an hour. From there, Norrie took control. The Brit held his own serve to edge into the lead.
Zapata Miralles saved break point in the sixth game of the set but couldn't save the second. Norrie was 4-2 up .
The Spaniard broke right back, though to stay alive at 4-3.
The pair then swapped service games to reach 5-4, before Zapata held to love to make it 5-5.
The duo couldn't be split and, at 6-6, a tiebreaker was required.
Zapata Miralles' resistance was finally broken in the decider, and Norrie closed out the victory.
It took longer than expected, but six days after losing to Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets of the Buenos Aires open final, Norrie earned a potential rematch in Rio.
He will face either top seed and defending champion Alcaraz or Chilean qualifier Nicolas Jarry.
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