Cameron Norrie celebrates in the second round against Alex Bolt on court 1 on day four of Wimbledon at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon. Picture date: Thursday July 1, 2021.
Frenchman Lucas Pouille will take on No.14 seed Cameron Norrie in the second round of the French Open
Pouille has had a very impressive run so far at the French Open. He has made the most of the advantage of playing on home turf in front of the home crowd and now finds himself in the second round of the Grand Slam. He had to overcome three rounds of qualifiers to make it to the main draw of the competition.
In the Round of 128, he got the better of Austria’s Jurij Rodionov in straight sets 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 to set up a clash against the 14th seed Cameron Norrie. It will be interesting to see if Pouille has what it takes to cause a major upset and progress further in the tournament.
Norrie had begun the year in an incredible fashion by finishing runners-up at the Argentina Open and then winning the Rio Open but his form has faded off recently. The British suffered early exits in his recent few tournaments – the Madrid Open, the Barcelona Open, the Monte Carlo Masters and the Miami Open. However, he did well at the recently concluded Lyon Open, reaching the Semi-finals of the competition. The British star would aim to carry forward this positive momentum to the French Open.
Norrie is seeded No.14 at the Roland Garros and there will be high expectations from him. He has begun his campaign with a thrilling win in five sets against Benoit Paire, which must be a huge confidence booster. Norrie has never progressed beyond the third round at the French Open and would aim to improve that stat this time around. It will be interesting to see if Norrie can gain some consistency and go deep into the tournament.
Date – Wednesday, 31st May
Court Type – Clay outdoor surface
Telecast – Tennis Channel
Start Time – 07:00 pm IST
Location – Paris
Match details – Second Round
Pouille and Norrie have played each other twice before on the ATP tour. Both the matches were closely fought and it stands 1-1 on head to head. On paper, the British star is the favourite both in terms of experience and rankings. We can certainly expect Pouille to put up a tough fight on home turf but the 14th seed should eventually prevail. We are predicting a win in four sets for Cameron Norrie.
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