‘Unreal’ crowd carries last Briton standing Norrie

Cameron Norrie was unable to escape Great Britain at the Australian Open, but his second-round performance earned him respectable support in the “top three” of his career.

The British number two won 6-1 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) in four sets when Emilio Nava defeated the American number one.

After Emma Raducanu lost to Austria’s Anastasia Potapova and Arthur Fery was outclassed by Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry on Wednesday, he is officially the last British singles player standing, as has been the case in the previous three Grand Slams.

The Brits always draw in fans at Melbourne Park, but the crowd’s three hours and 20 minutes on the court gave the 26th seed an especially “amazing atmosphere.”

But where did Norrie’s career stand?

He remarked, “The Australian Open had the best atmosphere.”

Where is the after-party, you ask? We must continue our journey, going straight to the Crown Casino and Entertainment Resort in Melbourne.

Norrie rallied to win the first two sets in less than an hour and a half before Nava staged a partial comeback by winning the third set.

Then, with Norrie three points clear of victory, the inconveniently timed rain that had almost an hour of play halted the fourth set to a halt in a fourth-set tie-break.

When I came out afterwards, Norrie said, “I was actually laughing to myself and felt so relaxed.”

“The fans had a tough time,” he said. There was a lot of atmosphere-building going on, which was completely overwhelming. It was unfortunate that the game couldn’t have ended there with all the atmosphere.

The world number 27 added that at times it seemed like the crowd was “on top of the court” and that “someone was getting fired up for me” wherever they were.

Fans chanting his name also interrupted his post-game on-court interview, so it’s fair to say he has won the hearts of the locals.

Next up for her is German third-seeded Alexander Zverev, who defeated Frenchman Alexandre Muller in four sets and has already won six of their matches, including a Melbourne decide-set tie-break.

“I’m looking forward to another crack at him,” he declared.

Top-10 men’s singles champions Carlos Alcaraz, Alex de Minaur, and Alexander Bublik all advanced on Wednesday.

German Yannick Hanfmann defeated Spanish No. 1 Alcaraz in straight sets to claim the title.

German third seed Zverev defeated Frenchman Alexandre Muller in four sets, winning 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, while Australian hope De Minaur came back strong with a 6-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Hamad Medjedovic from Serbia.

To meet Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry, who ended British qualifier Arthur Fery’s run, Kazakh 10th seed Bublik defeated Hungarian Marton Fucsovics 7-5, 6-4, 7-5.

With a straight-set victory over the top men’s doubles players in Great Britain, Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool clinched their title bid.

Joran Vliegen and Ariel Behar, both from Uruguay, defeated 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 to claim the year-end world number one men’s doubles ranking. Last year, Cash and Glasspool became the first all-British pair to do so.