CAMERON NORRIE was impressive again but even British tennis’ new star could not stop Spain advancing to the quarter finals.
Norrie was not quite able to reproduce his previous heroics in a 7-6 2-6 7-6 6-2 loss to world No 21 Albert Ramos-Vinolas that sealed a 3-1 victory for the hosts.
The British team must now win a play-off in September to stay in the elite 16-nation World Group of the Davis Cup.
But world No 114 Norrie, 22, showed once more that he can be an exciting part of the sport’s future, fighting and playing superbly until he faded in the fourth set.
In a crazy, brilliant first set, Norrie almost pulled off a mini-version of his first-day miracle comeback.
From 0-4 and a double break down, the Brit twice broke Ramos-Vinolas as he served for the set to level it at 5-5.
Even when the Spaniard moved ahead again, Norrie achieved the eighth break of serve of the set to force a tiebreak.
But he faltered a little in the breaker a little, and Ramos-Vinolas took it 7-4 after 75 titanic minutes.
Norrie, though, has a remarkable ability to shake off disappointment.
He twice held serve from 0/30 down early in the second set, before breaking Ramos-Vinolas to lead 3-2.
For good measure he broke again for a 5-2 lead and then served it out, having apparently seized the momentum from an opponent who was once more showing the nerves that had affected him during his win over Liam Broady on day one.
Ramos-Vinolas pulled himself together and took advantage of Norrie suddenly going off the boil a bit to open up a 3-0 cushion in the third.
Back came the Brit, though, as the breaks of serve kept raining in and he levelled at 4-4.
The day was chilly but the atmosphere was sizzling as it went into a crucial-looking tiebreak.
The Spanish had been rattled by some earlier line calls but then an umpiring over-rule, which turned out to be wrong, cost Norrie when he lost a replayed point to trail 4-2.
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The Brit made it back to 4-4, but then lost three points in a row to leave Spain needing a set for victory.
Only then did Norrie start to look tired, which was understandable after his four-hour victory over Roberto Bautista Agut and more than three hours more in this match.
Ramos-Vinolas broke serve in the opening game of the fourth set, as errors began to creep into the Brit’s game, and again in the fifth to give himself some breathing space.
Norrie made his opponent serve it out but this time the Spaniard didn’t bottle it.
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