Daniil Medvedev melts down as Russian falls to Cameron Norrie at first hurdle of French Open

Former world No 1 Daniil Medvedev of Russia paid the price for an early meltdown as he stumbled out of the French Open with a 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 1-6, 7-5 first-round defeat by Britain’s Cameron Norrie on Tuesday.

Medvedev’s composure disintegrated as he surrendered eight consecutive games after opening a 3-1 lead in the first set, his frustration boiling over in a series of animated gestures towards his bewildered coaching team.

With the vocal support of the Simonne-Mathieu court crowd, however, the 2021 US Open champion found his groove despite the windy conditions to win the third set and bag the fourth easily after claiming a remarkable 16 consecutive points.

Norrie, who reached the semi-finals at the Geneva Open last week, was out of ideas on how to outwit the elastic Medvedev, who broke for 2-1 in the decider with a lightning-fast passing shot.

The Briton, however, found the resources to break back before wrapping up victory on his first match point to hand 11th seed Medvedev his sixth first-round loss at Roland Garros.

“It was a great atmosphere, I felt a lot of energy. It was a crazy match, I deserve a diploma for beating him since he beat me the past four, five times,” said Norrie, who entered the match with a 0-4 win-loss record against the Russian.