Cameron Norrie is to face Richard Gasquet in the Auckland Classic final after the Frenchman was gifted a walkover victory in the semi-finals yesterday.
In the warm-up tournament ahead of the Australian Open, second seed Norrie won through to the final with a convincing 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jenson Brooksby of the US in his first straight-sets win of the week.
Gasquet — the 36-year-old once ranked as high as seventh in the world, but who is now 67th — did not get to take the court with fellow Frenchman Constant Lestienne, who pulled out with a shoulder injury suffered during his quarter-final win over Serbia’s Laslo Djere the previous day.
Photo: AFP
Norrie, ranked 12th in the world and a beaten semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, applied early pressure on world No. 48 Brooksby, who was forced to save four break points on his second serve.
On his third serve, the American could no longer hold off the torrent of fierce returns from Norrie, who was untroubled holding his serve throughout the set.
As had been the case in his two previous matches, Norrie was again in trouble at the start of the second set when Brooksby opened a 2-0 lead, but this time he was able to break back twice to wrap up the match.
“It was nice to get it done in straight sets. In the other two matches I won the first and lost the second, so it was nice to get it done straight, but it was an absolute battle, you know, a lot of long rallies,” Norrie said. “He puts the ball in such awkward parts of the court and I had to come up with a lot of really good shots on the run, and a lot of big passes, and was able to hold on to my serve there at the end.”
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