Norrie becomes first Brit to win Indian Wells title, Badosa beats Azarenka in final
INDIAN WELLS: Cameron Norrie’s breakthrough season reached a high point in the California desert on Sunday with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Nikoloz Basilashvili to become the first Briton to win the ATP Indian Wells title.
Norrie rallied from a set down to earn his career best 47th win of the season and is the first player from Great Britain to lit the trophy, achieving what former finalists Andy Murray, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski failed to do.
This is Norrie’s second title in his sixth ATP final of the season ater winning his maiden crown earlier this year in Los Cabos. The victory propelled him into the top 20 in the world for the first time in his career, and moved him past Daniel Evans to become the new British No. 1.
“I am so happy, this is my biggest title,” said Norrie, who clinched the crown when Basilashvili belted a forehand long on the first match point.
Norrie hit just one ace had two double faults but won 77% of his first serve points and played beter in the crucial moments than Basilashvili.
“It has been an incredible week. I was expecting it to be a longer match and he made a couple of errors at the end,” said Norrie.
Murray was the most recent British finalist in 2009 when he lost to Spaniard Rafael Nadal. Henman made the final twice, in 2002 and 2004 when he lost in straight sets to Roger Federer 6-3, 6-3. Canadian-born Brit Rusedski was runner-up in 1998.
Norrie was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, grew up in New Zealand before becoming the top collegiate player in the United States at Texas Christian University. He has represented Great Britain for the past eight years.
The 29-year-old Basilashvili was going for his third title of the season. He has a reputation of being a streaky player capable of looking unbeatable one day and vulnerable the next. Unfortunately, the Georgian did not bring his A game against Norrie unlike the quarter-finals where he upset second seeded Stefanos Tsit
sipas of Greece.
Basilashvili said he had some health issues Sunday which sapped his energy in the final set, but declined to go into detail.
Paula Badosa demonstrated her mental toughness to become the WTA Indian Wells champion with a hard-fought, three-set victory over two-time champion Victoria Azarenka.
The Spaniard, who had not lost a set since her first match of the tournament, needed three hours and four minutes to out-muscle Azarenka
7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 7-6 (7/2).
“Every morning I wake up and my dream is to win a tournament like this,” Badosa said. “I have to keep working hard and always believe. The key is to enjoy the journey.”
Badosa won her only previous WTA final earlier this season in Belgrade but she did it via a retirement over Ana Konjuh.
This one was sweeter because Badosa got to close out the championship point on the court, hammering a forehand winner to the open side that Azarenka could only watch sail in.
Badosa celebrated the biggest win of her career by falling face first to the court, both hands covering her face while the crowd cheered.
“This is a dream come true,” said Badosa during the post-match festivities on the court.
She then turned to Azarenka, saying “I remember when I was 14 or 15 years old seeing you win Grand Slams and hoping one day I can play like that.”
Two-time Australian Open winner Azarenka was trying to become the first three-time WTA winner in Indian Wells.
She batled back several times on Sunday, digging in ater dropping the first set in a tightly-contested tiebreaker. But the 32-yearold Belarussian fell behind early in the final set tiebreaker and couldn’t recover.
Badosa got the first break of the match in the seventh game of the opening set but Azarenka immediately broke back to level at 4-4.
Azarenka used an ace to win the fith game of the opening set and then used another ace to set up the winning point in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead.