If I had to issue a sentence after watching this great match, I would say that Cameron Norrie has obtained a well-deserved award, for the over effort he has made to beat Carlos Alcaraz, in the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters tournament. Although I am also clear that if anyone intends to beat Carlitos at any stage of the tournament, he has to do this and more, because this guy has become a tennis machine.
I remember writing something about the British player's tiredness during the final of the ATP 250 in Los Cabos two weeks ago, in which he was widely beaten by Daniil Medvedev; and the fact is that Norrie practically could not run anymore. That was a great effort to defend his 2021 title in the Mexican peninsula. He seemed to be at the limit and could not avoid defeat, but a few days later he appeared in Canada and won two more important matches.
Today Cameron did it again; and this speaks of the great physical conditions he possesses. Since he played his fourth match in Cincinnati (first against Holger Rune, then with Andy Murray and then with Ben Shelton), not an easy task, especially if you have Alcaraz on the other side of the net. Carlitos is well known for his dizzying tennis, his youthful momentum and physical strength; in addition to his flashy changes of pace; all this made him the ultimate opponent for Norrie, who had not been able to beat him in a single match, until now.
Alcaraz was dominant from the first set, closing the net area and hitting effective parallel balls, with his friend Pablo Carreño cheering him on from the stands, he had luxury shots that drew applause from the audience; however, he lacked something and that was to achieve the long-awaited break of serve, which never came. Instead Cameron defended and advanced each game, until the tiebreaker, where he managed to impose his opening rhythm and placement. Thus at 7-6 (3) lasted 70 minutes.
The unforced errors of Alcaraz, seemed to tarnish his exhibition of legs and strength; fortunately tennis is not only that, tennis is to know how to dose your strength and attack when it is necessary to do so. Therefore, seeing Cameron break in the 4th game of the second set was encouraging. But that did not end there, because Alcaraz was holding in the 6th, breaking in the 7th and securing the 8th, to go up with a comeback worthy of the most veteran players.
Norrie was able to resist and force the tie break, but he let everyone see his lack of legs when running to the net to answer Carlos' drop shots (I think he will have nightmares about that ha,ha,ha,ha). With Cameron's 20 unforced errors, the equalizer came in 60 minutes and the scoreboard read 7-6 (4). That meant that a third set would determine the last semifinalist of the day; and in my opinion the Spaniard was in better conditions to continue fighting, but to win, you have to win.
This feeling was confirmed by an Alcaraz who started the set, serving at 132 mph; and that speed had not been reached in previous sets. But if this boy has the strength, Cameron has the intelligence; the response of the Briton was to improve his tactics and I could see that in his torso movement, hitting his forehand crosscourt. The detail, is that Cam did it almost at the end, that is, he invented this kind of feint that fooled his rival; and as fast as Carlos is, he did not reach those shots.
And although his aggressiveness allowed him to break in the 4th game, Norrie's resilience allowed him to draw strength from where he didn't seem to have; Cameron recovered the break and I don't know how, but he improved the efficiency of his serve. But the key of the match would come in the 9th game, with a Carlitos who was prey of anxiety, hitting harder than necessary; he was able to save 3 break balls, but then he himself threw two shots out and ended up giving in to Norrie's constant tennis.
At that moment I saw him moaning, just as Cameron was about to serve to stop the match. I saw it uphill, considering that the Spaniard had a hard time breaking the opponent's serve. Norrie knew it was the moment to kill or die, so he ran on every ball like never before, and managed to get 40-0, of those 3 match points, Carlos could save only 2, because Cameron would close in style, with a short crosscourt ace, which left unanswered his tormentor three times.
Cameron Norrie's victory cry stopped the clock at 3 hours and 3 minutes; and now he will face in the semifinals who for me is the sensation of the event, the Croatian Borna Coric with whom he has played on two occasions, with one victory per side; so it will be the perfect stage to break the equality and write his name in the grand final on Sunday. Today the game of the day, Carlos and Cameron have given us; congratulations to the winner and respect to the loser.
The opinion in this publication is of a personal nature on the part of the author.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator.
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