Relentless Norrie continues his rise
The self-styled “tennis paradise” of Indian Wells failed to live up to its billing last night, as heavy rain followed sandstorms in the Californian desert. But Cameron Norrie was not bothered. He absorbed a two-hour delay before overcoming Roberto Bautista Agut in three sets.
That is the nature of Norrie. Imperturbable and relentless. His method is unspectacular, mainly revolving around endlessly repeatable groundstrokes and one of the biggest pairs of lungs in the business. But he gradually squeezes the life out of his opponents like a boa constrictor.
Bautista Agut is the 43rd victim of a career-best season, which still has a mathematical chance of carrying him to the ATP Tour Finals in Turin.
At 26, Norrie is almost the polar opposite of Dan Evans – the man who still sits four places ahead of him, at No 22, in the world rankings.
Where Norrie is a baseline grinder who relies on physicality, Evans is mercurial and full of unpredictable touch shots. And where Norrie has devoted his early twenties to dogged self-improvement, Evans only really twigged the value of commitment when he returned from a cocaine ban at the age of 28.
If Norrie goes on to finish with the more decorated career, this consistency of purpose will be the explanation. He rarely takes a day off. Even when he returned to his parents’ house in New Zealand during the pandemic, he was still running like a maniac.
His evolution has been remarkable since he first showed up in the junior event at Roland Garros a decade ago. Three years at Texas Christian University proved to be the making of him. He found out who he was and who he wanted to be, especially after he crashed a moped while half-cut and got bawled out by his head coach. “It was a good wakeup call,” he has said.
Norrie could end up as one of the most successful players to come out of US college tennis in the modern era. The leading figures in that category are a pair of mighty servers – 6ft 10in John Isner and 6ft 8in Kevin Anderson. Norrie lacks one single weapon that can rival those two giants, but his legs and his engine make him just as awkward to play, as the American Tommy Paul could well discover in tonight’s fourth round meeting.