Cameron Norrie came sprinting out of the blocks at the start of a marathon run of events that he hopes will take him all the way to the ATP Cup finals in January.
The British no. 3 was already 5-0 up against Germany’s Peter Gojowczyk just 14 minutes into his first round match of the inaugural Zhuhai Championships in China and eventually won 6-1, 6-4 in little over an hour.
It earns him a second round clash with Gael Monfils on Wednesday, but that is just the start of a journey that will take him to Beijing, Shanghai, Antwerp, Vienna and Paris in search of ranking points to get him back up from his current spot of 68 in the world.
Last week in London, Britain’s senior players took the opportunity to get together for some hitting practice.
Andy Murray also used it as a chance to hold an ATP Cup meeting with Kyle Edmund, ranked 32, world no. 48 Dan Evans, and Norrie to discuss the new team tournament next year.
But with Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski likely to take the doubles places, and Murray using his protected ranking, it is left to the other three to battle it out for the remaining two places on the five-man team.
That selection will be based purely on world ranking on November 13.
“Andy is giving everything a lot of thought in terms of talking about the ATP Cup,” Norrie said. “We met with him and his level of detail and professionalism is unbelievable
“We talked about the ATP Cup and obviously one of us is going to miss out with Andy entering on his protected ranking.
“If I am the one who does not make it, no big deal – the Australian Open is the main priority. But it is a straightforward criterion – the top three singles players – so we will see with that.
“I feel I am back on track and playing well and the conditions are good for me in China.
“In tennis, a couple of moments can make a lot of difference and I don’t really have anything in terms of points to defend for the rest of the year because I got knocked out early in these competitions 12 months ago.”
Murray himself gets back into ATP tour action in Zhuhai on Tuesday when he faces Tennys Sandgren of America, the man who beat him 7-6, 7-5 just last month.
