Cameron Norrie is the last Brit standing again after Ryan Peniston is beaten

QUEEN’S — Cameron Norrie is the last British player standing at Queen’s once again after being made to work for his place in the quarter-finals by Jordan Thompson.

Norrie, 27, lost the first set to Thompson, who arrived late in London after reaching the final in Rosmalen on Sunday.

The Australian is one of the few players on tour who favours the grass courts, having grown up training on them in Sydney, and has beaten Norrie in two of their last three meetings.

However, the South African-born Brit took the match into a third set and broke Thompson twice more in the decider, delighting the crowd with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory in an hour and 57 minutes.

“I think it was the perfect match. Jordan really likes the grass,” Norrie said.

“He played a couple of good points to break me and I played a couple of loose points and that was the difference [in the first set]. There wasn’t much in it and it was definitely a good match to get through.”

Ryan Peniston had hoped to repeat the heroics of last summer, when he reached the quarter-finals of Queen’s and then went deep at Eastbourne too where he beat Holger Rune, but the Dane earned sweet revenge on Wednesday as he triumphed in straight sets.

Peniston, who spent the weeks following Wimbledon last year sidelined by a wrist injury that has hampered his progress ever since, won just seven games in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat as Rune hit an impressive 23 winners.

Defeat for Peniston means Norrie is the last British player standing at Queen’s, although that is becoming familiar territory: he has not been outperformed by a fellow countryman at the last five grand slams.

Earlier, Lorenzo Musetti was forced to withstand a spirited comeback from rising star Ben Shelton as he beat the American 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals.

The Italian needed three match points to get over the line, double-faulting on the second, but eventually sealed victory with an ace in two hours and 11 minutes, his fourth grass-court win of the summer.

His opponent Shelton, 20, had not even left his home country of the USA before 2023, cutting his teeth playing collegiate tennis under his father Bryan at University of Florida.

And he had certainly not played on a grass court before arriving in the UK last week, but did manage to overcome lucky loser JJ Wolf in the first round.

The left-hander rallied after dropping the first set to take a tight second, breaking at 4-5, but it was the only time he managed to get a game against Musetti’s serve in the entire match.

Queen’s, day 3

Lorenzo Musetti (6) beat Ben Shelton 6-4, 4-6, 6-4

Cameron Norrie (5) beat Jordan Thompson 4-6, 6-3, 6-2

Holger Rune (2) beat Ryan Peniston (WC) 6-3, 6-4

Frances Tiafoe (4) vs Sebastian Korda

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