For a straight-sets match, particularly one without a tie-break, this one on Wednesday night at the Rio Open presented by Claro was as epic as they come. Cameron Norrie's 7-5, 7-5 win against Thiago Monteiro was a two-and-a-half-hour odyssey that saw the Briton create 21 break points before clinching victory on his sixth match point.
Eight of the 12 games in the opening set featured at least one break chance, including a marathon seven-deuce game at 1-1 in which Monteiro saved four break points to hold. All told, the Brazilian erased 16 break points, but it was not enough to take a set off the in-form second seed.
"It was a great match," Norrie said post-match. "I had a lot of opportunities in that first set and I could have been a lot more comfortable but he fought back strong and played really well in the bigger moments and served really well. Credit to him, but I was able to tough out the end of the sets.
"I was really hitting my backhand line really well and it made it difficult for him when he was trying to cheat over on his forehand," he added, discussing the lefty vs. left rallies.
Norrie had an opportunity to close out both sets on serve at 5-4, but was denied on both occasions, much to the delight of the late-night crowd on Court Guga Kuerten. In set two, Monteiro saved three match points on his own serve at 3-5 to extend the match, but he could not claw out of a 40/0 hole in his opponent's second attempt to serve out the victory.
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