Great Britain's Jacob Fearnley has advanced to meet Alexander Zverev in the second round of the Miami Open, but Cameron Norrie fell to a first-round exit on Thursday.
Qualifier Fearnley came through a three-set marathon with Benjamin Bonzi to earn his first Masters main-draw win, sinking the Frenchman 7-6[6] 2-6 6-4 in two hours and 19 minutes in sweltering conditions.
However, former Indian Wells Masters champion Norrie could not emulate the British number three, suffering a comprehensive 4-6 2-6 loss to China's Bu Yunchaokete, who took just shy of 80 minutes to complete the job.
Continuing his rapid rise to stardom after a few Challenger titles last year, Fearnley produced a high-risk, high-reward performance against Bonzi, making up for 42 unforced errors with 33 winners off his racquet.
The 23-year-old also reeled off 13 aces and managed to convert two of the three break points that he brought up on the Bonzi serve, including one for match point as he earned his maiden ATP 1000 success.
Fearnley's reward is a reunion with top seed and world number two Zverev, who memorably ended the Briton's magical Australian Open run in the third round at the start of the year.
Cameron Norrie slumps to third consecutive defeat
© Imago
Norrie was next up on Court 1 against Yunchaokete, meeting the Chinese world number 69 for the first time at the top level, but the ex-Wimbledon semi-finalist put in an underwhelming performance.
Norrie did not manage to bring up a single break point on the Yunchaokete serve all afternoon and faced 10 of his own - saving seven of them - while also committing 30 unforced errors compared to his opponent's 16.
The Briton could not recover from losing serve at the start of both sets - double-faulting twice in the opening game of the second - and he has now been defeated in three straight matches after an Indian Wells third-round loss to Tommy Paul and Challenger defeat to Constant Lestienne last week.
Norrie follows Billy Harris and Katie Boulter out of the tournament, but Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper are still flying the flag high for GB alongside Fearnley, and the former will face Emma Navarro in the second round tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Draper - who received a bye to the second round as the sixth seed - will take on the winner of the first-round contest between Jakub Mensik and Roberto Bautista Agut on Saturday.
Ben Knapton
