It has been three and a half years since Cameron Norrie departed the Indian Wells Tennis Garden having shocked the tennis world by winning one of the most important trophies in the sport. A rise into the top 10 of the ATP rankings and a Wimbledon semi-final followed soon after.
Despite two extremely positive earlier performances during the past week in the desert, Norrie remains a considerable distance from reproducing his success of old. The 29-year-old was outclassed in the third round of Indian Wells by the No 10 seed Tommy Paul, whose greater weapons and confidence in the decisive moments earned him a 6-3, 7-5 win.
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After an extremely difficult season last year, which saw him miss three months because of injury after struggling with his form for the most of the year, positive results have been hard to come by for Norrie and he has fallen to No 77 in the rankings.
Still, there have recently been glimmers of hope. He reached the third round this week by playing some of his best tennis in more than a year and his second-round win against the No 24 Jiri Lehecka marked his first top-25 victory since the Australian Open last January.
Norrie and Paul are good friends who practise together frequently and know each other’s game well. Paul, who broke into the top 10 for the first time in his career last month, has evolved into an outstanding player, with a flowing all-court game and excellent athleticism.
Although both players struggled early on, Paul eventually took control, breaking up the lengthy, attritional exchanges Norrie tried to suck him into with his far greater weight of shot and net instincts, while particularly striking his backhand down the line brilliantly. Norrie fought hard until the end, pulling himself back into the match in set two by retrieving Paul’s break with a run of 10 successive points.
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However, Norrie’s lack of confidence in his game was clear in the decisive moments, from the messy unforced errors he would have never offered his opponent three years ago to the way his serve collapsed at the close.
Down 6-5 in the second set, with everything still to play for, Norrie gave away the final game to his friend with three double faults, including a particularly excruciating one on match point. This time, Norrie will leave Indian Wells having made genuine progress, but with a long path before him as he tries to find his way back towards the top of the game.
