Cameron Norrie recovered from a slow start to book his spot in the quarter-finals of the Queen's Club Championships with a three-set win over Australia's Jordan Thompson on Wednesday.
Having been forced to dig deep to overcome Miomir Kecmanovic in round one, Norrie found a sixth gear in the closing stages to triumph 4-6 6-3 6-2 against Thompson in one hour and 57 minutes.
The Wimbledon semi-finalist faced 12 aces from his Australian foe but crucially saved eight of the nine break points he faced on the day, only losing serve in the seventh game of the opening set.
Eight unforced errors in the first set did not help Norrie, but he came out fighting in the second with a break to 15 for a 4-2 lead - bringing up three break points in that game with a perfectly-executed lob.
After levelling the match, Norrie was a man reborn in the deciding set, winning five of the first six games and saving three break points in his final service game, progressing on a netted forehand return from Thompson.
"I think it was the perfect match. Jordan obviously really likes the grass and he played a really solid first set. He played a couple of good points to break me, and I played a couple of loose points, and that was the difference in the first set. I actually thought I played great, so I didn't really have to change too much," Norrie said on the court.
"He dropped his level slightly [in the second set]. I came up with a few points and it was just like classic grass-court tennis. I was able to come out with a lot more energy in that third set and I think that was the difference. There wasn't much in it, and it was a really good match to get through."
Norrie is now the last British man left standing in the singles tournament, as Ryan Peniston could not build on his shock first-round win over Ugo Humbert, falling to Holger Rune in straight sets.
The world number six won a staggering 90% of points behind his first serve in a 6-3 6-4 victory, while also hitting 23 winners compared to 11 for Peniston, who fashioned three chances to break Rune but failed to take any of them.
However, there was another success for the home crowd to savour at the Birmingham Classic, where Harriet Dart made it two wins from two against Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina.
One week on from defeating Kalinina 6-0 7-5 in the Nottingham Open second round, Dart was given a closer run for her money this time around but nevertheless prevailed 6-3 3-6 6-1 in one hour and 44 minutes.
Either side of breaking for a 2-0 lead in the first set, Dart faced no fewer than seven break points in her opening two service games, but the Briton remarkably managed to save all of them.
Kalinina would finally convert her next break point in the second set to restore parity, but a resilient Dart would subsequently keep the Ukrainian fifth seed at bay for the remainder of the match.
There were shades of deja vu from last week's bagel when Dart went 5-0 up in the second set, and while Kalinina saved one match point to avoid the same fate, Dart held to love to seal another memorable success over the 26-year-old. body check tags ::
