The 2024 season has officially kicked off with the United Cup, and Cameron Norrie outlasted Alex de Minaur in three sets.
Despite the calendars still showing 2023, the 2024 season is officially underway with the United Cup that usually bleeds over into 2023 due to the amount of matches played. Most of the other events will begin on January 1st, but we have tennis going on.
In the first tie of the competition, Spain outlasted Brazil, and in the second, Great Britain took on host nation Australia. Cameron Norrie and Alex de Minaur were not a bad way to get us underway, and they certainly played a pretty interesting match.
It's a crucial matchup for both teams as this singles tie could end up proving decisive in the whole matchup. Norrie had the upper hand early after playing a ridiculously good set of tennis, mostly powered by his serve.
He had five aces and won 16/16 points when hitting his first serve. Norrie played pretty well on the return as well giving himself a chance to break and eventually doing so. He just straight-up outplayed de Minaur.
In the second set, things were slightly different as de Minaur stepped up considerably. Norrie did have an early break point chance, which could have won him the match, but the Australian saved it and started playing better after that.
He handled the serve much better, limiting any free points, which put pressure on Norrie. He didn't handle it well, losing the majority of points when missing his second serve, and the Australian took advantage. He easily won the second set 6-2 to send the match into a decider.
The final set largely opened without any issues for either player, but de Minaur looked a tiny bit more comfortable overall. As neither player was able to find a breakthrough, we ended up in a tiebreak which seemed fair.
Norrie played it better, and he won. The final score was 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(2). Great Britain leads 1-0. The WTA singles are coming up, as Ajla Tomljanovic will take on Katie Boulter.
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