Cam’s love match
Norrie’s girlfriend on Britain’s No1 as he bids for Wimbo final
AS Cameron Norrie faces Novak Djokovic today in his bid for a place in the Wimbledon final, among those cheering him on will be girlfriend Louise Jacobi.
Louise, 23, has travelled the world to be by his side for the last three years since they were introduced by friends in a New York bar.
Now as Britain’s number one prepares for today’s showdown, she opens up about their own very special match.
Recalling how he told of his ambitions early on, Chicago-born Louise says: “I remember him saying when we first met, ‘Oh, my dream would be to be in the top 10’. Just watching his hard work pay off has been insane.”
Louise was in tears after Cameron beat Belgian David Goffin in five epic sets on Tuesday. She says: “It was surreal. When your significant other is crying in front of you – like choking up – how could I keep a dry eye?”
Louise, who has a fine art degree from the University of Michigan, was introduced to South Africa-born Cameron in summer 2019 after he had been studying at the
Texas Christian University. But she was not initially interested in a relationship because he was always away on tennis tours.
In October that year her employer went bust and she lost her job. Cameron asked her to join him at the
Erste Bank Open in
Austrian capital Vienna.
She says: “When he asked me, I thought, ‘I guess this guy doesn’t live a normal life, and it’s not like
I can meet [him] down the street and go to dinner together’. So I went, and was only supposed to be in Vienna for five days, and things just went really well.
“I had a wonderful time with him.
“I was like, ‘Thank God I got laid off when I did’, because we were able to build the foundation of our relationship before Covid hit.”
Meanwhile, Cameron’s college coach has told how he turned his career around after a “crossroad moment” when he crashed a moped after drinking. The 26-year-old recently said he had to get six stitches on his chin and missed out on a professional opportunity after the crash, which “really kicked me into gear”.
David Robiti, who was one of his coaches alongside Devin Bowen for the Horned Frogs tennis team at TCU, said they had to sit him down and tell him to change his behaviour if he wanted to be a professional player.
He added: “What he learned from it was that he missed a big opportunity because of something that happened off court.”
‘‘ When my significant other is crying, how could I keep a dry eye?
LOUISE JACOBI ON EMOTIONAL SHOW AS HE BEAT GOFFIN