Cameron Norrie eased into the second round of Indian Wells as he saw off Luca Nardi in little more than an hour.
Norrie, who won the tournament in 2012, took control early in the match and held firm to secure a 6-0 6-4 victory and a second-round meeting with Czech player Jiri Lehecka.
The British number two dominated the first set with his service returns, with Nardi winning only eight points on his own serve. Norrie ultimately only dropped three points on his first serve in the entire match.
Nardi memorably beat Novak Djokovic in the first round here last year as a lucky loser, becoming the lowest-ranked man to beat the Serb at a Masters 1000 or Grand Slam, but was unable to replicate that performance this time. He fought back in a tighter second set but was never able to threaten the Norrie serve.
Having shared the first eight games, Norrie snatched his opportunity to break once more and served out to complete victory in a shade over an hour.
The Brit has had an indifferent start to the year, winning six and losing six, but Indian Wells has historically been a happy hunting ground for him and looks the ideal place for him to recover his form. The 29-year-old reached at least the quarter-final stage in three of the last four editions.
He faces a sterner test in his next match against Czech rising star Jiri Lehecka, who is seeded 23rd and received a bye into the second round, but leads their head-to-head 2-1.
Another former champion, 2018 winner Naomi Osaka, crashed out in straight sets in what she labelled “the worst match I’ve ever played”.
Osaka lost 6-4, 6-4 to Camila Osorio in her first match since retiring injured in the third round of this January’s Australian Open. It was the Colombian’s first-ever win at Indian Wells.
She wrote on social media afterwards, “Worst match I’ve ever played in my life. Wow, I’m so sorry to everyone who watched that”, but recovered by the time of her press conference to say, “I think given the situation, it wasn’t that terrible. It just feels like a little bump in the road.”
