By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday October 17, 2021
Cameron Norrie stopped Nikoloz Basilashvili to become the first British man to ever win an Indian Wells title.
Photo Source: Getty
Cam Norrie entered this year’s Indian Wells draw with burgeoning confidence and a career-high win total. But there was one caveat: The Brit had never won a main draw match at the BNP Paribas Open before.
Never mind that, the 26-year-old continued his winning ways and stormed to his biggest career title, completing his run on Sunday with an impressive comeback win over Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
“What an incredible week I've had here,” Norrie told reporters after improving to 47-20 on the season. “It was just a strange match. It was over quite quickly, and then the last kind of set I was expecting it to be longer. He made a couple errors towards the end.
“I still don't really know what I'm experiencing. It was an amazing couple weeks and I'm so happy with how I treated all the occasions, all the big moments, all the matches.”
Norrie, who finished last season at 71 in the world, has been a big match player all season. Playing in his sixth final, and first at the Masters 1000 level, he claimed his second title. It is a victory that will push him inside the ATP’s Top-20 for the first time, as well as making him the new British No.1 for the first time.
“I was very calm in the bigger moments and I played unbelievable, my best tennis, against Diego and Grigor in the quarters and semis,” Norrie said, referring to his victories over No.11 seeded Diego Schwartzman and No.23-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, which both came in straight sets. “Those were huge matches for me. To come out and play that level, to manage to turn it round today, especially after things didn't go my way early on, and he's difficult, not really giving you any rhythm, I was able to get my foot in the door, able to hang around, cause some trouble in the third set, really feel like I was moving well in the end.”
On Sunday Norrie was blitzed by the all-out power game of Basilashvili in the opening set but he recovered quickly and broke the match open early in the third set. He finished by winning eight of the final nine games and smothered the Georgian, who was also playing his first Masters 1000 final, with defiant defense and crafty counterpunching.
Norrie saved all three break points he faced in the final set as he converted two breaks and won 12 of 21 return points in the decider.
New Shoes Made Things Tricky
Norrie says part of his slow start was due to the fact that three pairs of his broken-in shoes were lost last night and he had to wear a fresh pair in the match.
“I don't think it mattered too much,” he admitted. “Ideally I like to play with shoes that I've been using for maybe five or six hits or practices or warmups. I like to have them a little bit used. They feel a bit heavy in general if they're a bit newer.
A couple times I was just thinking about it, probably not the best thing. You don't want to be thinking about your shoes. A little bit to get used to. At one point I said, All right, these are the shoes I got, I'm just going to focus on what I can control right now. I wore them in a little bit, came good in the end.”
Rising in the Race
Norrie Started the week at 14th in the Race to Turin but he will get a big boost from earning 1,000 points at Indian Wells. He is projected to jump to 10th, just 115 points behind Hubert Hurkacz for ninth, which is the last qualifying spot because No.8 Rafael Nadal will not play the ATP Finals this year.
“If you think about it too much, it can't be good for you,” Norrie said. “I was, All right, just take care of the matches. I was meant to play Antwerp next week, but it's going to be tough. I ended up pulling out of that one. I'm playing Vienna, Paris, and Stockholm, the last three events indoors. It would be nice to make it, but I'm going to keep going, keep taking care of what I can and handling what I can. We'll see how it goes.”