Opportunity knocks for Norrie against Federer
Ajourney which has taken in South Africa, New Zealand and university in the United States stops off at Wimbledon on Saturday when Cameron Norrie faces eight-time champion Roger Federer for a place in the last 16.
Norrie is third on the ATP Tour list for most match wins this year with 31, reaching three ATP finals along the way, the latest at Queen’s a fortnight ago.
He is blessed with a dogged fighting spirit as opposed to possessing an array of spectacular shots.
No more so than when on his debut for Britain in the Davis Cup in 2018 he came from two sets down on clay to beat the then world number 23 Roberto Bautista Agut.
Britain’s 1977 Australian Open finalist John Lloyd described the performance as “staggering.”
“To go against world-class players, with no experience, and to embrace this occasion like he has is quite extraordinary,” Lloyd told the BBC.
Three years on and the 25-yearold, along with two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray and Dan Evans, has reached the last 32 at the All England Club.
It is the first time since 1999 – Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Danny Sapsford – that three British males have got this far.
Norrie was born in South Africa to a Welsh mother (Helen) and a Scottish father (David), who met at a microbiologists conference in Johannesburg.
“I’m 100 per cent British,” he told The Times in 2017.
Indeed, he says his father has not lost “his filthy Scottish accent” despite over 40 years of living abroad first in South Africa and then in New Zealand where Norrie was brought up from the age of three.