At a vital moment of an engrossing second-round match here on Wednesday, Cameron Norrie was as much of a spectator as anyone in a partisan crowd on No 1 Court.
At a set down, 4-4 and 30-40 in the second, Frances Tiafoe, the No 12 seed, had got a racket to Norrie’s second shot and the ball took a slow, looping arc towards the sideline. The American’s band of supporters were halfway out of their seats to acclaim a vital break – only to see it land just wide. A relieved Norrie had clawed back to deuce from 0-40 down, and he seized the moment to hold, then break and gradually exert an ever-stronger grip on a match that had briefly threatened to get away from him, as he eventually ran out a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 winner.
There were definite echoes as he did so of the form and resilience that carried the British No 3 all the way to the semi-finals here three years ago. That run deep into the second week also propelled him to a career-high No 8 ranking, but after an injury-troubled second half of 2024, he had dropped all the way to No 91 in mid-May before a run to the last 16 at the French Open edged him back within sight of the top 50.
Tiafoe, meanwhile, went into the match buoyed by a career-best run to the quarters at Roland Garros last month. In a tight opening set, the American’s touch and willingness to try something different kept his opponent guessing during a series of baseline duels, and one subpar service game from Norrie was enough to see it slip away.
He served three straight aces to close out both the seventh and ninth games, but the damage had been done in the fifth, where some fine shot-making by Tiafoe – including a perfectly disguised lob that left Norrie planted and bewildered – combined with a dip in the British player’s first-serve percentage, allowing his opponent to carve out the only two break points of the set. He took the second of those as Norrie sent a forehand long.
Tiafoe’s first-serve percentage, meanwhile, was barely 50%, and while he had more than enough quality to beat his first-round opponent, Elmer Møller, with a similar strike rate on first serve, Norrie proved to be a much more demanding proposition. He both fought and thought his way back into the match, and by the middle of the third set, he was consistently finding a way to wrest back the advantage in points where Tiafoe held an early edge.
There was a big fist-pump from the American as he quickly retrieved an early break in the third, but no way back after Norrie seized on a weak second serve at break point in the eighth game and then served it out. The balance had shifted slightly but decisively in his favour, and the crowd could sense it too, urging their favourite home in a fourth set that always seemed to be edging Norrie’s way.
The sliding-doors moment in the second set was the first thing on Tiafoe’s mind afterwards, not least as it was a near carbon copy of the previous point, at 15-40, when he had also carved out a decent chance to put away a winner.
“It was two shots in open space where I picked them, I guess, right, and didn’t make either of them,” he said. “I think that was a huge turning point, I thought his intensity and belief went much higher, and he played much better. It could go anywhere in the court and the point is over, so that was hard.”
Norrie, meanwhile, is enjoying every step of the process as he works towards a possible return to the second week here – for only the second time in his career – and the upper reaches of the world rankings.
“I played an unreal match,” he said. “All-around complete, serving well, moving well, solving the drop shot really well, which in the past I haven’t always done. Hitting the slice, coming forward well, being clinical.
“I think it’s a good thing to go through, being injured, not winning, then having resilience to back yourself.
“For me now, coming into the match against Frances, being the underdog, play for free, it’s a lot easier than in the past when the pressure was on me. It’s nice to hunt the other guys and be on the flipside.”
