Cameron Norrie: British number two beats Andrey Rublev at the Erste Bank Open

Britain’s Cameron Norrie fought his way to victory over seventh seed Andrey Rublev to advance to the second round of the Erest Bank Open.

Nouri, ranked 35th in the world, won the two-hour match 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 in Austria.

Nouri (30 years old) started the match well and won the first set in just 34 minutes before breaking his serve and taking a 2-0 lead in the second set.

The Briton served at 5-4, but Rublev broke his serve for the first time to force a tie-break, which he won to decide the deciding set.

Nouri, formerly ranked eighth in the world, regrouped to break Rublev’s serve in the second half to take control of the third set.

Nouri broke serve again to book his place in the next round, where he will face either Australian Alexei Popyrin or Italian Matteo Berrettini.

“The performance was really good, I was moving well and able to dictate points,” Nouri said.

“I was a little nervous and hesitant when I was serving for the match but credit to him for staying in and competing.”

Meanwhile, there was heartbreak for Britain’s third seed Jacob Fearnley, who lost to second seed Alexander Zverev in the first round.

After losing the first set, Fernley, ranked 81st in the world, surprised the German player to equalize and was able to force a tiebreak in the third set.

But Zverev won the hard break to advance 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), and will face Italian qualifier Matteo Arnaldi in the second round.