Cameron Norrie Britain’s last hope as he aims for Wimbledon semi-final
Today’s play at the All England Club will feature British No1 Cameron Norrie as Wimbledon gets set to host a singles quarter-final involving a home player for the first time since 2017.
Then it was the duo of Andy Murray and Johanna Konta, but today it is all about Norrie.
Relegated to the outside courts in the opening round of the tournament may just be the grounding experience any home No1 needs if they’re going to shine in the second week on Centre Court.
A straight sets 6-0 7-6 6-3 win over world No100 Spaniard Pablo Andujar saw the Brit become the first to win a set at this year’s championships and the ninth seed had gotten his SW19 campaign off to a raucous start.
In a second round match against another Spaniard – the promising Jaume Munar – it was less than plain sailing.
Having won the first set in a regulation break of serve 6-4, Norrie lost the next two sets and suddenly became on the edge of packing his bags and heading home early.
But again the Briton produced a bagel and won the fourth and fifth sets 6-0 6-2 to avoid an upset – which have been common at this year’s championships – and progress through to the third round.
Then it was the turn of the Americans – first Sam Johnson and then Tommy Paul. Johnson is a big serving six foot two player from Orange ranked 93 in the world.
Yet, like in his first round, Norrie won in straight sets. 6-4 6-1 6-0 the scoreline as Norrie completed a third bagel set in three matches.
And on Sunday afternoon, under the watchful eye of a near capacity Centre Court, Norrie reached his first Wimbledon quarter-final. Tommy Paul, a long term friend of the Briton, was brushed aside 6-4 7-5 6-4 – much to the delight of the home crowd.
The South African born, New Zealand-raised Brit is on a Wimbledon charge and is the last home player standing. And when he goes up against unseeded David Goffin today on Centre Court, he’ll be aiming to be the first British man since Murray in 2016 to progress through to the semi-finals – of course it may be in his mind that Murray also won that year.
“Unfortunately I’m the last [Briton] standing,” Norrie said after his Round of 16 win. “But I think it’s even more reason for everyone to get behind me.”
“I’ve improved a lot and matured on the court and kept progressing with my team,” he said afterwards.
“I’ve definitely improved mentally over the years and I’m way more mature as a player, and I think it shows.
“I’ve stayed patient with myself and embraced the grass surface – it’s probably not my favourite surface but this gives me a lot of confidence,”
The former Indian Wells winner will face either six-time SW19 winner Novak Djokovic or rising sensation Jannik Sinner should he beat the 31-year-old Belgian this afternoon, but it’ll be no easy feat.
Goffin has history at this level as a three time Slam quarter-finalist – one of those coming at Wimbledon in 2019 – but was hampered with injury throughout 2021.
The course of these championships has been fascinating thus far with seeds losing early on, the absence of Daniil Medvedev over his Russian nationality and the talk of lower attendances.
But this is it, the second week of Wimbledon and there is a Brit remaining. Cameron Norrie can follow in Konta and Murray’s footsteps of making semi-finals at the grass Grand Slam in recent years, but should he be successful it will be entirely his own storyline making the headlines.