Norrie strides into last eight

Cameron Norrie pulled off the win of the day to progress into the quarter-finals of the Delray Beach Open by Vitacost.com when he dispatched the third seed Adrian Mannarino in straight sets.

I think I feel more comfortable as the week’s gone on. I’m pleased with where my game’s at Cameron Norrie

The British No.3 beat the Frenchman 6-2 7-5 taking full advantage of a brisk start to break him twice and set the ball rolling to pocket the opening set.

Mannarino, however, turned the tables at the start of the second leaping into a 3-0 lead and looked to have recovered sufficiently to force the match into a third when Norrie struck back to level in the sixth game and go on to clinch his last eight place six games later.

“That second set was a battle. There were some really long rallies, a lot of running. It was good to scrape through that,” Norrie admitted. “I think I feel more comfortable as the week’s gone on. I’m pleased with where my game’s at.”

He will face the eighth seed Frances Tiafoe who was taken the distance by his American compatriot Bjorn Fratangelo.

The 22-year-old Tiafoe recovered from a disappointing second set to reach the quarters 6-4 3-6 6-1.

“I told myself to swing at the ball,” Tiafoe said in his on-court interview. “I was pretty tentative in the first two sets. Even though I won the first set, I was behind the baseline a lot and he was running a lot of balls down. But then I freed up a little bit, and then it worked out.”

Earlier in the day, Ecuadorian qualifier Roberto Quiroz brought down the 41-year-old former champion Ivo Karlovic 6-2 6-4 for his fourth victory as a pro.

The 6’11” Karlovic, whose serve is his main weapon, was surprisingly broken three times as Quiroz reached the last eight of a tour event for the first time in his career.

He will face Poland’s fourth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz in the quarters, who defeated Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia 6-2 6-4.