Most visitors to Paris believe the mornings are for croissants and black coffee, not energetic exercise, and Daniil Medvedev appears to be among them after the 11th-seed suffered a shock French Open first round exit to Briton Cameron Norrie.
The Russian is known to dislike morning starts and it showed as he went two sets down to the 81-ranked Norrie soon after midday, bickering with his team in the players box as he did so.
Shaking of his early lethargy Medvedev then swept back to 2-2, including a remarkable spell when he won 16 consecutive points. Having taken the fourth set 6-1, then broken early in the final set, a fifth victory in five meetings with the British No.3, including in Rome earlier this month, seemed certain..
But Norrie, who grew up in New Zealand, came back to win 7-5 6-3 4-6 1-6 7-5 in three hours and 52 minutes, throwing his racquet into the air to celebrate as Medvedev went long.
“I felt that he was a little tentative but honestly it was a crazy match,” said an elated Norrie.
“He is so tough to beat, I think I deserve a diploma for beating Medvedev because he’s beaten me the last four times. It was an unreal match.”
Elsewhere third seed Alexander Zverev defeated American Learner Tian in straight sets but 16th seed Grigor Dimitrov retired due to injury when 6-2 6-3 2-6 ahead against American qualifier Ethan Quinn.
The first player into the third round was American 13th seed Ben Shelton who did not need to hit a ball in the second round after France’s Hugo Gaston withdrew.
