Britain’s Cameron Norrie described his first-round victory at the Madrid Open as one of his favourite wins in his career after he overcame illness to defeat Martin Landaluce.
Former British number one Norrie beat the 19-year-old Spaniard 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 6-4 to earn a first ATP main-draw victory since the start of March.
Poor form has seen Norrie, 29, drop to 91st in the world, and for a while on Thursday his struggles looked set to continue.
After losing five games in a row from 3-0 up in the opening set, Norrie fought back from 3-0 down before saving a match point and winning the second.
The British number three used his experience to see out victory after Landaluce produced a wild game at 4-4 in the deciding set.
Norrie later explained he has been struggling with sickness, saying on Sky Sports: “It’s terrible timing but at least I have another day tomorrow to rest. Hopefully it will pass pretty quickly.
“It’s maybe one of my favourite wins. I was feeling absolutely terrible, I wasn’t sure I was going to play, I had no energy, didn’t sleep at all last night.
“I started very low energy, sleeping on the court still. I had to create my own energy. He actually played really well, I know he’s a really good player, so I had to fight every point.”
Norrie will face 26th seed Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic in the second round.
Later on Thursday British number two Jacob Fearnley joined Norrie in the second round with a 6-3 7-6 (7-2) defeat of China’s Yunchaokete Bu.
Fearnley will face Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic in the next round after the 19th seed received a bye in the first.
