Britain’s Cameron Norrie reached the French Open third round for the first time as he came from a set down to beat South Africa’s Lloyd Harris.
World number 45 Norrie is the last Briton in the singles draw and is likely to face 13-time champion Rafael Nadal after the 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-2 win.
Nadal plays France’s Richard Gasquet in Thursday’s night session.
British number ones Dan Evans and Johanna Konta, as well as Heather Watson, were beaten in the first round.
Norrie’s “CEO” approach to tennis
Norrie, 25, arrived at Roland Garros on a run of good form having reached two finals in May and has now claimed 25 wins in 2021.
It is the third time Norrie has reached this stage at a Grand Slam, having done so at the 2020 US Open and 2021 Australian Open, and he explained what has changed over the past year.
“I think the biggest thing is I’m attacking tennis in all aspects and taking it to a different level professionally,” he said.
“Handling everything on the court and off the court and making it very businesslike, like I’m the CEO of a company, and I’m doing things very smoothly.”
Steely professionalism may not be enough against defending champion Nadal and Norrie used his post-match news conference to send a message to the Spaniard’s second-round opponent Gasquet, joking: “You can do it mate.”
Norrie lost to Nadal in straight sets at the Australian Open in February and again in Barcelona two months later and he agreed facing the 35-year-old in Paris is one of the toughest tasks in sport.
“Obviously I’m going to be the underdog going in there, so no pressure on me,” he continued.
“I’ll go out and see if I can execute my game and frustrate him. It’s another wonderful experience for me playing him, again, third round of a Slam, especially where he’s been very dominant.”
Norrie cleans up first serve to win
The British number two struggled with his first serve early on against world number 54 Harris – making just two of nine in his first two games – and was broken to go 2-1 down.
Norrie had a break point at 3-2, but his backhand sailed long and he could do nothing to contest Harris’ impressive serving for the remainder of the first set.
A more aggressive-looking Norrie came out in the second set and he took advantage as 24-year-old Harris had his own first serve difficulties, breaking to take a 3-1 lead.
Norrie held on to claim the second set and looked increasingly confident as he broke early in the third.
As Harris’ unforced error count rose, so did Norrie’s energy levels and he claimed three more breaks of serve to quickly wrap up the final two sets.
‘Norrie never looked worried’ – analysis
Former British number one Laura Robson
That was a very confident performance from Norrie. He never looked worried about how things were going and he never really changed his game plan.
He just waited for the Harris errors to creep in, which they absolutely did by the end of that match.
Norrie looks so in control out there and has played some fantastic tennis already this week. I think he has improved beyond sight over the last 18 months.
