Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley have set up Battle of Britain at the French Open – but Katie Boulter crashes out

Great -Britain will have a man in the second week of the French open For the first time since 2017, as Jacob Fearnley and Cam norrie Both won a Scottish derby in the third round.

The one who takes tomorrow’s game will be the first since then Andy Murray To crack the last 16 in Paris.

While Murray’s trips in the last phases of this event tended to be lonely efforts, the men of Great -Britain are moving this year as a package, with Jack Draper Last night opposite Gael Monfils, in an attempt to join his countrymen in the last 32.

Norrie and Fearnley know each other well, despite the six-year-old age gap, as fellow graduates of the Texas Christian University-Dus This will be a horned frog Derby and a struggle of Great Britain.

It shows how rare British trips in this case are that this will be the first time in the Open Age that two GB players met after the first round.

There was an element of happiness about both the victories of Norrie and Fearnley. Norrie’s was the happiness of the draw, as his reward for a colossal upset of NO11 seeds Daniil Medvedev Was a meeting with World No144 Federico Gomez, a 28-year-old Grand Slam-Debutant.

The chance of FearNley was more suddenly: he was a setup, but a break for the French NO2 Ugo Humbert in a match that bubbled nicely that the seed of NO22 took a filthy slip and, after a few points, retreated with a calf flash on 6-3, 4-4.

Back to Norrie, and his task was to navigate the jump from Underdog to a heavy favorite. “Nothing changes,” said the 29-year-old before the game. “Different challenge, the same level, the same mentality.”

It was certainly another challenge: instead of the Hark-Dunne Medvedev, Argentina’s Gomez came, a colossal copy built more on the lines of a Pumas flanker than a tennis player.

He struck a huge ball predictably, but faded as the rallies progressed. Norrie needed seven set points to take the first in a tiebreak, but then dominated and won 7-6, 6-2, 6-1.

If Norrie’s first round victory was a story about perseverance, he had nothing on Gomez.

The 28-year-old Argentinian played college tennis in the US and then struggled for years on the lower reachers of the circuit without a breakthrough. In March of this year he posted on Instagram, in which he expressed thoughts to stop the sport and even suicide.

Days after that post, Novak Djokovic reached Gomez and invited him to practice with him in Miami.

They had another session here in Paris and the many poorly informed opponents of the Serbian would do well to realize that such actions of kindness are completely characteristic of him against his fellow professionals.

Gomez’s first round victory here – on his Grand Slam debut – was a memory of the power of a kind of gesture. It was also a memory of the enormous sea of ​​largely unknown talent below the highest level of tennis.

Because FearNley came the well -known problem of silencing a part -time crowd. In just over a year on the Tour since graduation, the 23-year-old has confronted Nick Kyrgios in Melbourne and two Italians in a row in Rome.

In the early stages of this match, he completely surpasses his opponent: it cost Humbert until the 13th game to record a Forehand winner, by that time, Fearnley had eight.

But the shot played a terrible game to be broken in that second set and the fans just got their teeth in him when Humbert’s tumbling.

Rotten happiness for the lazy left: in April he fell into his hotel room and cracked a bone in the right hand, his double -handed backhand. Another freakish injury at his home slam was hard to watch.

But for Fearnley, his smooth transition from college tennis to Challenger circuit to the main tour goes on. In three Grand Slam debut he made the second round of Wimbledon and then third rounds in Australia and Paris.

Only Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev have stopped him in the Majors so far. About you, Cam.

Twenty-four hours after Emma Raducanu had given a lesson about Philippe Chatrier, Katie Boulter received a similar hard demonstration of the Golf that exists between the best in the world and the best in Great Britain.

The British No1 sent nine double errors in a meek 6-1, 6-3 defeat through the hands of Australian Open Champion Madison Keys.

She debuted her debut on the most important arena of the French Open, just like Raducanu for her 6-1, 6-2, which was beaten by Iga Swiatek on Wednesday.

On this surface our two best female players miss the power – in the case of Raducanu – and the fleet of foot – in boulter – to compete with the very best players.

Boulter and keys wore identical chestnut nike dresses and there are also many similarities in the Gamestyles. Both play flat, hard and fast – the problem for boulter is that keys play flatter, harder and faster.

At least this was not the kind of matchup in which her movement – the weak point of her game – would be exposed too much. Few were the rallies that stretched beyond five strokes.

“It’s more about who gets the first strike,” Boulter said before the game. “Who is on the ball with every point.”

Keys first landed strikes; Boulter landed double errors. Each of the first three breaks of her serve was admitted via double errors – safe to say that the American NO7 seed did not have to work too hard for its passage to the third round.

“I think almost every service game hit double mistakes,” said the 28-year-old. ‘Against someone with that caliber behind her, you can’t afford to do that.

“These players, when they get a little confidence, start to swing freely and they will try to get rid of you as soon as possible.”

The defeat of Boulter put an end to the representation of Great Britain in the ladies’ singles, after the 6-1, 6-4 morning defeat of Sonay Kartal against Marie Bouzkova.

On the other hand, the 23-year-old should have done enough to reach the top 50 when the rankings renew to Roland Garros.

That would give Great Britain for the first time since 1986 three women in the top 50 in the world: a healthy position that goes into the grassy season.