Cameron Norrie’s relatively low-key campaign to defend his title at the BNP Paribas Open continues to blossom after beating rising star Jenson Brooksby in the fourth round.
The 12th seed was tested by his American opponent before prevailing 6-2, 6-4, in the Californian desert. After storming through the opening set in just 32 minutes, Norrie found himself trailing 0-3 at the start of the second. Despite the blip, the Brit managed to regain control of the match by drawing level at 3-3 before going on to break Brooksby two times in a row en route to victory.
“It was really difficult. I love playing on this court, obviously,” atptour.com quoted Norrie as saying afterwards. “Jenson’s so tricky and came out with a gameplan and managed to execute from the beginning and didn’t really miss too much. [I had] one slight lapse in concentration in the second set, but [I am] really enjoying my tennis and happy to sneak through another one.”
Brooksby is one of his country’s most promising young players and knocked Stefanos Tsitsipas out of the tournament earlier this week. He is currently at a ranking high of 43rd in the world and has reached the final of two ATP 250 events, including the Dallas Open last month. Last year at the US Open he reached the fourth round to become the youngest American man to do so since Andy Roddick in 2002.
Norrie’s record at Indian Wells now stands at 9-2. It was at the tournament last year when he won the biggest title of his career to date after beating Nikoloz Basilashvili in the final. Since then, he has won his third career title at the Delray Beach Open and reached the final of the Mexican Open which he lost to Rafael Nadal.
The 26-year-old will next play another Next Generation star in the shape of Carlos Alcaraz who is the youngest player in the top 20. Alcaraz has already scored back-to-back wins over Roberto Bautista Agut and Gael Monfils. In February he won the Rio Open to become the youngest player to ever win an ATP 500 event. The upcoming clash will be a chance for Norrie to avenge his previous loss to the Spaniard.
“He absolutely chopped me up the last time we played,” Norrie told BBC Sport.
“It’s not going to be easy but it is great for tennis to have a great up-and-coming guy like that. He has got a very complete game already.”
Norrie will play Alcaraz on Thursday night local time.
