The stamina of Cameron Norrie is holding up at the end of a long and hard season, with the British No2 coming back from a set down for the third consecutive match to reach the final of the Metz Open.
Norrie, 30, is renowned on the ATP Tour for his fitness and he is using it to great effect in his final tournament of the year. A 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Lorenzo Sonego, the world No42 from Italy, on Friday was the latest in a run of four straight matches that have all gone the distance in three sets.
Now Norrie has the chance to finish on a high with a trophy that would mark his sixth career title on the tour. Ranked No27 in the world, he will go into Saturday’s final as the favourite against Learner Tien, the world No38 from the United States.
Whatever the result, Norrie has put together a strong closing stretch this season. Last week he claimed his first win against a world No1, beating Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz from a set down in the second round of the Paris Masters.
Victory in the final would push Norrie up to No24 in the world rankings, providing a potential boost in the draw for January’s Australian Open. Players seeded within the 17-24 range are guaranteed to avoid a top-eight opponent in the third round, meaning that Norrie would not face the likes of Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic until the fourth round at the earliest.
Norrie has come a long way since May when he was in danger of dropping outside the world’s top 100. At a ranking of No90, he had to go through qualifying at the Geneva Open before going on to reach the semi-finals. It was the catalyst for an improvement in form as he advanced to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon two months later.
“I want to continue to enjoy my tennis,” Norrie said on Friday. “That’s what I came here to do. I’m lucky, I get to play another match tomorrow. It was one more week and now one more day to enjoy my tennis at the end, and I get to do it here in Metz. I’m a lucky guy.”
Norrie is in a buoyant mood after beating Alcaraz last week in what he called “the biggest win of my career”
ANTONIO BORGA/EURASIA SPORT/GETTY
This was a tough test for Norrie after a strong start by Sonego. The pair also contested a three-set match at the start of the year in Hong Kong, and Norrie battled hard to ensure that the result ended in his favour for a second time, finishing with 34 winners and 17 unforced errors.
“It is always a battle,” Norrie said of his duels with the Italian. “When I play Lorenzo I have a lot of respect for him. He’s so passionate about tennis and he showed that. He came to fight and we both fought hard today. I was really happy with my level.
“In the third set, even though he was fighting, I really was playing free and I had a lot of support from the crowd. That really helped me a lot and got me through the match in the end. Honestly, I enjoyed this match probably the most this week.”
Elsewhere, Djokovic is on the brink of claiming the 101st title of his remarkable career after reaching the final of the Hellenic Championship in Athens. The 38-year-old Serbian veteran produced his best performance of the week to see off Yannick Hanfmann, the world No 117 from Germany, 6-3, 6-4.
Djokovic had lost his previous four semi-finals — the French Open, Wimbledon, US Open and Shanghai Masters — but can now look forward to his first final since he reached a century of trophies at the Geneva Open in May. He plays Lorenzo Musetti, the world No9 from Italy, in Saturday’s final.
“It was the best tennis I’ve played this tournament,” Djokovic said. “It came at the right time.”
At the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina will battle it out for the richest official prize in tennis history of £4million on Saturday. Rybakina, the world No6 from Kazakhstan, defeated Jessica Pegula from the United States 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, before the Belarusian world No1 Sabalenka held off another American, Amanda Anisimova, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.