𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Cameron Norrie mirrored two-time champion Andy Murray by harnessing the energy of a merry Wimbledon crowd to keep the British flag flying.

Jack Draper’s surprise second-round loss on Thursday to former finalist Marin Cilic left Norrie as the last home hope standing in the men’s draw in SW19.

To the delight of high-spirited spectators on his favoured Court One, the 2022 semi-finalist delivered, recovering from a slow start to dispatch Italian world number 73 Mattia Bellucci 7-6 (5) 6-4 6-3.

British number three Norrie will take on Chilean qualifier Nicolas Jarry in round four, with two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz a potential quarter-final opponent.

“It’s important to use the crowd to your advantage,” he said.

“I was just pulling from random people, getting fired up with them. You can see they’re loving it.

“Obviously Friday afternoon, people had a few drinks. I could feel that. Getting behind me. It was nice to see.

“I wanted to try to give them something to cheer about. I think the people quite like it when you look at them and get fired up. They feel like they’ve played a part in the win.

“I wanted to pull from the energy from not just my team but from some random people in the crowd. I’ve seen Andy Murray do that a lot in his matches. Yeah, it was so much fun today.”

Norrie, who has plummeted from a career-high ranking of eighth to 61st, conceded he “stole” an unconvincing opening set from Bellucci on a tie-break after being broken in the opening game.

He gradually took control of a tight contest to enhance his enviable Court One record, having won eight of nine matches there across his career, including his impressive second-round success over 12th seed Frances Tiafoe.

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The 29-year-old is also open to returning to Centre Court – the scene of his four-set, last-four defeat to Novak Djokovic three years ago – for Sunday’s showdown with Jarry but will not be making any official requests.

“If I’m playing my next match on Centre Court, that’s great,” he said.

“I feel there’s the tendency to be a little bit more respectful on that Centre Court in terms of energy and crowd, noise and everything.

“I felt like today on Court One, there were a few difficult moments for me that the crowd got really fired up – some love 30 (down), love 40 (down).

“I managed to switch the energy and switch the momentum of the match. I think that was huge to use that today. Yeah, I felt that.

“I obviously played Centre Court a few times. The match with Djokovic, they got loud as well. I’m not saying that doesn’t happen.

“I just feel a little bit more on Court One – it’s maybe just a little bit biased (because of) winning there and playing well there.”