Norrie

Norrie had played just one match on grass before this year’s Wimbledon after retiring injured in the French Open first round with a rib injury.

And the former world number eight looked rusty as he broke Zheng, ranked 144th, just once in the entire match.

Zheng hit 21 aces to Norrie’s four, while the 22-year-old committed just four double faults to Norrie’s 10.

Harriet Dart came close to completing a gritty comeback win but ultimately fell 6-3 3-6 6-4 to former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.

The pair were scheduled to play on Court 17 on Monday, but Raducanu’s withdrawal saw their match moved to Court One.

Wildcard Dart made sure fans with tickets for the show court were not disappointed as she forced a deciding set against the world number 31 in an entertaining two-and-a-half hour display.

Ostapenko will face either Antonia Ruzic of Croatia or compatriot Darja Semenistaja – the lucky loser who replaced Raducanu in the draw.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old British wildcard Mika Stojsavljevic lost 6-2 6-1 to 2021 Olympic champion and 11th seed Belinda Bencic.

Felix Gill and Max Basing were beaten on their Grand Slam main-draw debuts, losing to 23rd seed Rafael Jodar and qualifier Shintaro Mochizuki respectively.

Alicia Dudeney, who was also making her main-draw major bow, lost 6-3 6-3 to American Alycia Parks.

Mimi Xu and Hannah Klugman, both navigating the step up to senior tennis, lost to Daria Kasatkina and 2024 Wimbledon singles champion Barbora Krejcikova respectively, while Oliver Tarvet was beaten by 25th seed Arthur Rinderknech in four sets.

There are 19 home players across the two singles draws – although 17 are playing opponents ranked inside the world’s top 55.

Norrie’s fitness and stamina have been among his biggest assets during his career – as well as his desire to play as much tennis as possible.

However, after playing in the back-to-back Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome across April and May, Norrie opted to go to the Geneva Open in the week leading in to Roland Garros.

He lost his opening match to Argentina’s Mario Navone on Wednesday and said afterwards he “probably should have retired” from it.

“I overdid it with the preparation and not listening to my body and my mind,” he told BBC Sport on Saturday.

“I kept pushing because I had never retired before in a match in my career, so I wasn’t sure what to do.”

That run is now over, but former British number one Annabel Croft believes Norrie made the right choice.

“It’s far better not to exacerbate the injury problem and get back to the UK, have rest and treatment on it, and then start building up to Queen’s Club and Wimbledon,” she said on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.

“We’ve heard from [Novak] Djokovic that his body doesn’t respond as well as it used to and into his thirties it was getting more difficult for his body to respond.

“This sport is so demanding and I can see why Norrie would have overtrained.”

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller added: “It is in Norrie’s DNA – he just can’t really leave it alone.

“That is what’s made him the player he is today. He loves being out there.”

Norrie was the last British singles player standing at 14 Grand Slams over the past five years, including the Australian Open in January.

Fearnley begins his French Open campaign later on Tuesday, while Katie Boulter and Francesca Jones have reached the second round in the women’s singles.

Achieving a hold to love in the opening game, 30-year-old Norrie’s strong start faded quickly as Sinner broke twice to dominate the first set 6-2.

Each held serve until the fifth game when Norrie, having resisted a break point, attempted to seize momentum with an underarm serve but it failed to clear the net.

The Italian claimed the game, but Norrie broke back, winning seven successive points in his efforts to turn the tide in a first competitive meeting between the players.

At 5-5, the British number one survived two break points before surrendering the game to Sinner, who served out in the final game to become only the second player in tennis history to win the first 20 Masters 1000 matches of the season, after Novak Djokovic in 2011 and 2015.

“We know each other quite well. We practised a lot in the last tournament. We both kind of knew what to expect,” the four-time Grand Slam champion said of Norrie.

Speaking to Sky Sports, he added: “This surface is very very different to all the other surfaces so it’s very tough to get the right feedback and sometimes you feel like you are not playing your best.

“But I’m very happy to be in the quarters again, it’s a tournament I haven’t played a lot so it means a lot to me and I’m happy to be through in two sets.”

In the quarter-final he will play either Kopriva or Jodar, who meet later on Tuesday. The pair were given the afternoon slot after Jodar’s round of 32 win over Joao Fonseca finished late on Sunday night.

After playing at the “unusual” time of 11am local time (10:00 BST), Sinner questioned the way that the tournament is organised.

“[Jodar] finished very, very late [on Sunday], but at the same time I feel like we need to make some adjustments with scheduling of the day,” he said.

“For matches at 8pm, it’s very very late, even though you have one day in between – still, it’s very very late.

“You finish at 1.30am and you need to eat, you need to have treatment, so it’s very late. We try to adapt ourselves, our bodies and minds.”