ameron Norrie was accused of gamesmanship by opponent Holger Rune throughout a straight-sets win that noticed him attain the fourth spherical of the US Open for the primary time.
The British primary is constant to dwell as much as his top-10 rating and saved 19-year-old Rune at arm’s size throughout a 7-5 6-4 6-1 victory at Flushing Meadows.
Rune, already the highest-ranked Danish man in historical past and a French Open quarter-finalist this 12 months, has a fame as a spiky character and through the second set he protested to the umpire about Norrie catching his ball toss earlier than serving.
Gamers are allowed 25 seconds between factors however the clock stops when the server throws up the ball, that means catching the toss buys additional time to reset.
Rune made it clear to the umpire he thought Norrie was intentionally exploiting a loophole within the guidelines however his protests fell on deaf ears because the seventh seed maintained his document of not having dropped a set to this point this fortnight.
Norrie, whose run to the Wimbledon semi-finals was the primary time he had gone past the third spherical at a Slam, had admitted to nerves throughout his second-round win over Joao Sousa and each gamers seemed edgy in a scrappy first set.
Norrie opened up a 5-3 lead however hit a wild double fault after which shanked a smash to drop serve, just for Rune to play a equally poor recreation and provides him a second likelihood.
The British primary seemed to have taken management of the second set at 4-1 however Rune was capable of apply some late strain once more, forcing Norrie to save lots of two break factors at 5-4.
The Dane complained to the umpire about Norrie’s ball toss throughout that recreation earlier than persevering with his protests on the finish of the set.
The pair had met twice earlier than, with each matches going to a deciding set, however right here Rune might supply no actual resistance within the third as Norrie eased to victory.
