How crime sent baby Cam on journey to Centre Court
THE circuitous journey of Cam Norrie to Centre Court stardom began with a shocking crime in South Africa. His father David and mother Helen settled in Johannesburg as microbiologists before the plight of a neighbour led to them emigrating when the future British No 1 was a baby. The family moved to Auckland before their son came to London at 16, prior to a spell attending university in Texas. ‘We lived in a sort of complex with barbed wire electric fencing,’ recalls David, originally from Glasgow, unmistakenly so with his accent. ‘One night our neighbour was the victim of a carjacking. He had a gun put to his head and there was a baby in the back of the car. ‘We decided at that point that this was not the place to bring up kids and started making plans
to emigrate. We had lots of friends who had been burgled. ‘Moving somewhere like New Zealand, we looked at the change to a very active lifestyle. It was one of the best decisions we made. If we had stayed in South Africa I guess things might have worked out differently.’ With David a keen squash player and his wife a runner, they soon found they had a sporty offspring, who among other things was competing at regional cross-country events. ‘He was always a good runner, and good at cricket, football, table tennis as well as tennis,’ remembers David. ‘You don’t know how good he might have been but he was a good crosscountry runner, he could go for a long time at quite a good pace.’ After the pandemic hit, they didn’t see Cam for almost two years. New Zealand was cut off, and it was only at the Italian Open in May that they saw him again. ‘It was rough,’ admits Norrie Snr. ‘It was pretty emotional when we met up again in Rome but it was just nice to see him. ‘We wanted to stay in Europe for a couple of months because we hadn’t seen Cam for so long. ‘There’s hardly anyone flying to New Zealand at the moment so the fares back are absolutely horrendous. We cancelled our flights but we aren’t going to be making any plans until after Friday anyway.’ Norrie is yet to be made a member of the All England Club, whose reserved seats on Centre Court have been controversially empty on many occasions this fortnight. ‘I don’t know the inner workings of the club but he hasn’t got membership yet,’ says his father. ‘I think Andy (Murray) proposed him but they work at a different pace.’
BRITAIN’S Neal Skupski and American Desirae Krawczyk successfully defended their mixed doubles title last night as they beat Australian duo Matt Ebden and Sam Stosur. Liverpudlian Skupski, 32, and Krawczyk won 6-4, 6-3 on Centre Court to become the first pair since Cyril Suk and Helena Sukova 25 years ago to win consecutive mixed titles at SW19.