National Bank Open 2026: Cam Norrie sets up third round clash with Alex de Minaur
• 2 minute read
Britain’s Cam Norrie is safely through to the third round of the National Bank Open in Montreal after defeating world No.33 Ignacio Buse in straight sets.
Norrie knocked out the 29th seed 6-3, 6-3 in just under an hour and a half to set up a clash with Australian third seed Alex de Minaur.
The British No.2 took full advantage of the Peruvian’s lack of tour-level experience on hard courts and broke in the second game to race out to a 3-0 lead.
After serving out the first set with relative ease, Norrie set his sights on wrapping up the match in similar fashion. Despite losing his early break in the second, Norrie got the better of Buse’s serve twice more at 2-2 and 5-3 to seal the victory.
This marked Norrie’s best win by ranking since he defeated De Minaur at Indian Wells back in March.
The former top-10 star has made an impressive start to the hard court swing, having suffered early defeats at the HSBC Championships and Wimbledon during the grass court season.
Norrie reached the semi-finals in Los Cabos last week and is now into the third round of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament for the third time in 2026.
The Brit is set for tougher tests ahead against De Minaur, who he currently shares a 3-3 head-to-head record against, including one win apiece so far this season.
Meanwhile, Jacob Fearnley narrowly missed out on what would have been the biggest win of his career in the second round of the National Bank Open against Roland Garros semi-finalist Jakub Mensik.
The British qualifier forced Mensik into a decider and led by a break in the third set, but eventually lost out 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and nine minutes.
Fearnley has had a resurgence in form since the grass court season, where he reached the final of the Lexus Ilkley Open and won the title in Newport.
He’s since reached the Bloomfield Challenger final in the States and beaten Adrian Mannarino in the opening round in Montreal after coming through qualifying.
He’s closing in on his eagerly awaited return to the ATP top 100, currently ranked world No.106 in the live rankings.
Jack Draper lost in the first round of the National Bank Open against Terence Atmane 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.
