Britain's Cameron Norrie crashes out of the Rotterdam Open to Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets

Cameron Norrie saw his hopes of reaching the last four of the Rotterdam Open dashed as he was beaten in straight sets 7-5 7-6 by Felix Auger-Aliassime. Auger-Aliassime — as he had been in defeating Andy Murray in the previous round — was able to deploy his serve to great effect and after edging a tight first set, showed fight to come back from a break down in the second to pull through.

Ad/> Norrie's progress to the last eight had been relatively serene, seeing off Ugo Humbert and Karen Khachanov in straight sets respectively in the first two rounds. ATP Rotterdam'I'm not trying to cheat!' — Murray in hat controversy during Rotterdam exitA DAY AGO However he was coming up against a different kettle of fish in Auger-Aliassime, who is playing with real conviction in 2022 and has a series of results to go with it.

Also in the Canadian's favour was his head-to-head record against Norrie before the match, which stood at 3-0. And the 21-year-old looked like he was ready to make off with the first set after breaking Norrie, but the Briton broke back at 3-5 down to keep himself alive.

Del Potro pulls out of Rio Open amid retirement speculation Williams has been 'prepared for retirement for over a decade', wants more kids 'I'm not trying to cheat!' — Murray in hat controversy during Rotterdam exit However Auger-Aliassime seized back the initiative as a tie-break loomed, sealing the break and the set after just under an hour. In the second set Norrie kept the score level early on before landing the break to forge ahead.

However Auger-Aliassime broke back to force a tie-break, and took it for the loss of just four points. Auger-Aliassime ended the encounter with an impressive 86% win-rate on his first serve, and with 13 aces to