“It was an amazing match!” Norrie fights past Paire in five, moves into Roland-Garros second round

It was the toughest of battles in the Paris heat, but No 14 seed Cameron Norrie eventually won against French wildcard Benoit Paire 7-5, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the second round of Roland-Garros on Monday.

As the sun beat down on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, the match ran to three hours and 33 minutes, and Norrie – famously one of the physically fittest men on tour – admitted in his on-court interview that going five sets did seem to suit him.

“All the training makes it worth it, for moments like this,” he said. “I was feeling good physically, I wanted to make the points long.”

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But he had plenty of praise for Paire, who got great support from the home crowd.

Norrie : “All credit to Benoit, he played really well”

“It was an amazing match. All credit to Benoit, he played really well. Nice to see him back competing really hard and he made it really difficult, serving well. He definitely put on a good show.”

The world No 13 added: “When he’s serving well and he’s coming forward and using his backhand and being really aggressive, it’s really difficult, especially on a hot day. I tried to take it point for point.”

And he knows it will not get any easier for him as he faces another Frenchman next – qualifier Lucas Pouille.

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Roland-Garros (Grand Slam), other first-round results (Stade Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 49.600.000, most recent results first):

• Gael Monfils vs. Sebastian Baez
• Timofey Skatov vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Michael Mmoh vs. Taylor Fritz
• Richard Gasquet vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Quentin Halys vs. Guido Pella
• Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Gregoire Barrere
• Thiago Monteiro vs. Yannick Hanfmann
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Jaume Munar
• Holger Rune vs. Christopher Eubanks
• Thiago Seyboth Wild vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Hugo Gaston vs. Alex Molcan
• Alexander Zverev vs. Lloyd Harris
• Alexander Bublik vs. Giulio Zeppieri
• Max Purcell vs. Jordan Thompson
• Yoshihito Nishioka vs. J.J. Wolf
• Elias Ymer vs. Casper Ruud
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Hugo Dellien
• Tommy Paul vs. Dominic Stricker
• Andrea Vavassori vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
• Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs. Genaro Alberto Olivieri
• Jannik Sinner vs. Alexandre Muller
• Luca Van Assche vs. Marco Cecchinato
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Flavio Cobolli
• Daniel Altmaier vs. Marc-Andrea Huesler
• Zhizhen Zhang vs. Dusan Lajovic
• Arthur Fils vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Jiri Lehecka vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
• Hamad Medjedovic vs. Marcos Giron
• Dominic Thiem vs. Pedro Cachin
• Borna Coric vs. Federico Coria
• Filip Krajinovic vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Thiago Agustin Tirante: monday
• Novak Djokovic vs. Aleksandar Kovacevic: monday
• Christopher O’Connell vs. Taro Daniel: monday
• Stan Wawrinka vs. Albert Ramos-Vinolas: monday
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Fabio Fognini: monday
• Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Yibing Wu: monday
• Alexei Popyrin vs. Aslan Karatsev: monday
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Jack Draper: 6-4, 1-0 ret.
• Alex De Minaur (18) beat Ilya Ivashka: 6-1, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3
• Juan Pablo Varillas beat Juncheng Shang (Q): 4-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1
• Bernabe Zapata Miralles vs. Diego Schwartzman: monday
• Brandon Nakashima vs. Denis Shapovalov: monday
• Lucas Pouille beat Jurij Rodionov (LL): 6-2, 6-4, 6-3
• Ugo Humbert beat Adrian Mannarino: 6-3, 6-3, 6-1
• Alexander Shevchenko beat Oscar Otte: 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (2)
• Lorenzo Sonego beat Ben Shelton (30): 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Andrey Rublev (7) beat Laslo Djere: 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Corentin Moutet beat Arthur Cazaux (WC): 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
• Lorenzo Musetti (17) beat Mikael Ymer: 7-5, 6-2, 6-4
• Roberto Carballes Baena beat Emilio Nava (Q): 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-2
• Matteo Arnaldi beat Daniel Elahi Galan: 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2
• Sebastian Korda (24) beat Mackenzie McDonald: 6-4, 7-5, 6-4
• Nuno Borges beat John Isner: 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (9)
• Jason Kubler beat Facundo Diaz Acosta (LL): 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (5) beat Jiri Vesely: 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7)
• Marton Fucsovics beat Hugo Grenier (WC): 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3
• Thanasi Kokkinakis (WC) beat Daniel Evans (20): 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Radu Albot (Q) beat Patrick Kypson (WC): 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
• Karen Khachanov (11) beat Constant Lestienne: 3-6, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3
• Hubert Hurkacz (13) beat David Goffin: 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
• Tallon Griekspoor beat Pedro Martinez (Q): 6-4, 2-6, 0-6, 7-5, 6-3
• Sebastian Ofner (Q) beat Maxime Cressy: 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-2