Cameron Norrie suffered an uncomfortable exit from the cinch Championships at Queen’s Club, the British No 1 losing his last competitive match before Wimbledon in straight sets to Sebastian Korda, 6-4, 7-6.
With taping visible on his left knee, Norrie was unable to match the power or mobility of the American, who is currently ranked 19 places below Norrie, but seemed unruffled throughout this quarter-final and now has the prospect of taking on the world No 2 Carlos Alcaraz in Saturday’s semi-final. For Norrie there will be questions, over both his fitness and his form, which has dipped since he beat Alcaraz to win the Rio Open in February.
The first set opened with a flurry, first Norrie then the 1.96m Korda breaking on their first returns of serve. At 2-2 Korda did so again, pulling Norrie around the court with pinpoint forehands and forcing him into errors. A double fault sealed the turnover and despite a close contest in terms of points won, from then on Korda held his nerve to take the lead.
Korda had beaten three Britons already this year and looked ready to claim the scalp of a fourth when he broke easily in the second to lead 3-2. Norrie looked short on power and ideas, but found it within him to break back straight away, with a series of backhand returns that hit a tempo and range it had appeared he could not reach.
Norrie looked comfortable on his serve from then on, but so did Korda and a tie-break duly loomed into view. Under pressure once again, this time Norrie buckled. He drove a topspin forehand wide to the right of the court on his opening service point. He then missed the baseline twice with both forehand and backhand. Korda raced to a 4-0 lead before Norrie won a point, but at 5-1 Korda let his serve do the talking to close out the match.
Earlier in the day Holger Rune had outlasted Lorenzo Musetti under the full glare of the sun. The two grass court novices flickered in and out of touch across the near two hours of the contest but, in the crucial moments, it was the Dane who was able to deliver.
Rune, who had only played five matches on grass before this quarter-final, found himself 4-1 down in the first set and underwent a medical break for treatment on his right wrist.
However, he recovered to win five games on the spin, immediately exploiting Musetti’s shaky second serve to break back. Two hefty errors from the Italian surrendered his next service game too and – at deuce at 5-4 – Rune delivered two dominant points to take the first set.
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The second set was marginally less peppered with mistakes and had its moments of excitement too as, on occasion, both players found their range.
At 1-0 and on Rune’s serve, there was a sharp exchange of volleys that was decided by the Dane cross-court, prompting a sincere and full-blooded fist pump. The set continued with serve until 5-5 however, where Musetti lost a challenge and his concentration, surrendering his serve to love allowing Rune to serve his way into a first grass semi-final, where he will play the Australian Alex de Minaur.