AUCKLAND: It was sweet revenge for Cameron Norrie, the only seed left in the Auckland Classic, when he overcame a loose second set to beat American Marcos Giron in their quarter-final clash on Thursday.

Second-seed Norrie was pushed to 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 by Giron but prevailed to set up a semi-final against American Jenson Brooksby.

On the other side of the draw, Richard Gasquet and fellow Frenchman Constant Lestienne will contest the second semi-final.

World number 12 Norrie, searching for a third ATP title, said he was determined not to lose to Giron again after going down to the American when they met as recently as 12 weeks ago in Vienna.

“I wanted to get some revenge,” Norrie said. Norrie dropped his serve at the start of the second set, and although he recovered, he lost the ensuing tiebreak.In the longest match of the tournament so far, Lestienne took two hours and 46 minutes to come from a set down to beat Serbian Laslo Djere 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5.

Djere cruised through the first set and held match point when serving at 5-4 in the second when Lestienne rallied to level the set and then take the tiebreak.

The deciding set stayed on serve until 4-4 when Djere dropped his serve twice and Lestienne did so once before the Frenchman was able to serve for the match.

Brooksby beat Frenchman Quentin Halys 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2) in two tightly contested sets.

The determined 22-year-old American was down 0-2 at the start of the first set and had trouble with the Halys first serve, which produced 13 aces, before working his way into the match.

The 36-year-old Gasquet was outclassed in the first set but recovered to beat Belgian David Goffin 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 in a battle of two former top 10 players.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2023