Cameron Norrie has had some incredible highs and extreme lows so far this season but is optimistic about his chances of turning things around on the Asian Swing.
World No. 17 Norrie achieved the impressive feat of defeating two-time Grand Slam champion and World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz to win the Rio Open back in February, winning the match 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 to take the fifth ATP title of his career.
However, he has since faced a lot of difficulty at Grand Slams and on the ATP Tour. The British No. 1 crashed out of Wimbledon in the second round, after having made the fourth round in 2022. He was also unable to progress past the third round of the French Open or the US Open.
Norrie is currently competing at the Zhuhai Championships, where he will face Marc Polmans in his opening match. While preparing to play there, he opened up about his season and his goal of reaching the ATP Finals.
"At the start of the year that was a huge goal [but] there were a couple of things that got in the way of that, mostly in the level of my tennis. I’ve been really working hard to bring the quality up again in my practice sessions and my team has been great with me and I think I’m ready to have a big week again.
"Honestly, in previous years, I’ve thought I’ve played my best tennis here in Asia, but I never had a really big result. Someone always came up and beat me and played well against me. But I think I’m going to be pretty dangerous these next few weeks. It’s going to take someone very good to stop me," he continued.
The 28-year-old went on to talk about his disappointment at Grand Slams this year.
"I was really going into the season to try to prioritise the Grand Slams and I was not able to play my best at those tournaments and I was very disappointed with that. I think I can learn a lot from how I handled those weeks … and I think, over five sets, I should be tougher to beat. But I’m going to have to go away and work really hard with my team in the off-season and really embrace the Grand Slams in the future," he said.
He also spoke of how Great Britain's successful result at the Davis Cup Finals Group Stage last week served as motivation for him despite losing both of his matches at the tournament.
"I’ve actually never felt so good after getting chopped, losing two matches. I was able to come away feeling so good and it is not often you have that in tennis. It was a huge honor to represent my country again and I definitely took a lot of positives from the week and I was really happy with the way it finished," he added.
🇫🇷🟰 France go level on points with Great Britain after Cameron Norrie falls to a third-set defeat. It's all on Evans/Skupski v Mahut/Roger-Vasselin. The winner goes to the Final Eight of the Davis Cup in November. 📺 Watch it on @BBCiPlayer #DavisCup #BBCTennis
