{"id":60690,"date":"2026-08-30T23:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T23:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/60690\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T23:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T23:43:12","slug":"qualifier-toby-samuel-flies-british-flag-at-us-open-after-cameron-norrie-crashes-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/60690\/","title":{"rendered":"Qualifier Toby Samuel flies British flag at US Open after Cameron Norrie crashes out"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the absence of several of Britain\u2019s more experienced players, this US Open<\/a> is all about unproven millennial talents like Toby Samuel \u2013 the Dorset lad who drew first blood on Sunday when he ousted former world No 20 Tomas Machac in three speedy sets: 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.<\/p>\n

At 23, Samuel had never won a match in the main draw of a major before, but he cruised through this one with absolute serenity. Apart from a minimum of \u00a3140,000 in prize-money, his other significant reward will be a guaranteed place in the world\u2019s top 100 for the first time, once this tournament has finished.<\/p>\n

The game plan was clearly to make Machac work as hard as possible, on the principle that he has struggled with a foot injury since May and might not want to play too many long rallies. It worked so well that Samuel finished the match with a paltry 13 unforced errors to his name, while his Czech opponent, who was desperate to finish points as early as possible, sprayed 25 of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty tired, but otherwise I\u2019m so happy to have got the job done there,\u201d Samuel said. \u201cI played a great match \u2013 I\u2019m just so thankful for everyone who\u2019s supported me to this moment, and hopefully I can just carry on this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean the first two sets, I wasn\u2019t missing any balls, I was feeling amazing, and then start of the third, I knew he\u2019d come out a little stronger, and I had a little dip in the first two games, went a break down, but I got back pretty good, and I managed to close it out comfortably. So I\u2019m very happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust try and do exactly what I did before today in the match, prepare the same way, but I think I\u2019m probably not going to play that well in the next match. I have to be prepared to fight, and be a bit tougher, but I\u2019m going to do everything I can to get ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a few of my college mates from Carolina come down here and support, and they brought the energy, and I was so grateful they were able to come down and give me the fight and energy needed to get the job done today.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a uniquely successful week of qualifying in New York, Samuel\u2019s win should at least keep the good vibes flowing for a little longer, even if British No 2 Cameron Norrie was simultaneously slipping to a four-set defeat against fleet-footed Frenchman Luca Van Assche.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the absence of several of Britain\u2019s more experienced players, this US Open is all about unproven millennial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[283,2427,113,239,28,240,616],"class_list":["post-60690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-atp","tag-cameron-norrie","tag-sport","tag-standard","tag-tennis","tag-us-content","tag-us-open-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}