Britain’s Cameron Norrie pulled off a major upset in the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters by beating World Number one Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a gruelling match lasting almost two and a half hours and ended the Spaniard’s run of nine successive tour level finals.
Ranking it as “probably the best win of his career”, Norrie played a superb match throughout and despite dropping the first set he upped his level winning 79% of points behind first serve and saved four from five breakpoints overall.
Norrie, who is the second left-handed player to have a win against Alcaraz after compatriot Jack Draper, constantly peppered Alcaraz’s backhand with his high looping forehand drawing a whopping 23 errors from that side. Although Alcaraz hit 19 winners off his famed forehand, he also made 29 errors giving him a match total of 54 errors – far too many to compete at this level.
On court afterwards he was asked where this win ranked in his career. “It’s massive, so big for me,” said Norrie. “I have been coming back from my injury. Last year, I lost in the first round of qualies here. I have just tried to enjoy my tennis in the second half of the year and I was able to do that and to get a win like this, the biggest of my career, my first over a World No. 1 and especially against the most confident player in the world right now, with Sinner combined. I am just so pleased with the way I did it. I had a lot of chances and had to keep pushing and going for more and I was able to stay tough and get the win, so I am really pleased.”
Norrie came into the match with a clear gameplan to stay tough all the way through, serve big and at the right moments, and he chased every drop shot down and took the fight to his opponent – who was playing his first match of the tournament and who later admitted he wasn’t feeling at his very best.
During one particular exchange in the first set, after reaching a drop shot, although he was out of position for the next shot but somehow crafted a reverse-of-the-racket flick at full stretch which lobbed Alcaraz at the net and left him dumbfounded, a trick shot straight out of the Spaniard’s playbook.
It was during the second set that Norrie felt more at ease with the pace and power of Alcaraz’s baseline play and he broke serve for the first time to go 3-1 ahead. A lengthy but crucial game followed and Norrie averted the pressure to create daylight at 4-1, a lead he held on to when levelling the match at 6-3.
Alcaraz, by now struggling with his game and decision-making tried to increase his energy levels during the third but instead was the one under constant pressure: he saved a breakpoint at 1-2 down with a brave dropshot, and escaped from 0-40 down in his next service game. But the pressure finally told and having been taken to deuce for the third successive game, Norrie captured the critical break of serve with a running backhand cross court drive which was just beyond the reach of the Spaniard at the net.
Serving at 4-3 ahead, Norrie found himself 15-40 down but fought through to win the game. Alcaraz held serve, meaning that Norrie had to serve out.
“What’s crazy is that I was more nervous serving for the match yesterday against [Sebastian] Baez, I don’t know why,” said Norrie. “I was telling myself: ‘I want to be in this moment and I deserve to be in this moment’ and I was able to stay relaxed and I had a couple of really good shots.”
Norrie, who has now won three of his last five meetings with Alcaraz, later revealed that he had to be physically strong for the two-hour twenty-minute contest: “There is no secrets. I think to beat him I had to play really well for over two hours, more than that. Yeah, I had to keep pushing him. I had to keep the intensity high. I had to keep playing every game. I didn’t want to take one point off. I didn’t want to let him breathe at all today. I had to stay calm, and I had to be not afraid to win. I think that was important. I told myself before the match, even if I get in a winning scenario, I’m not going to be afraid to win. I stayed true to that, and I was able to stay calm and relaxed.”
Despite his loss, Alcaraz had encouraging words for his victor: “I think I have to give credit to Cam, because I think he didn’t let me stay or come back to the match. I had few breakpoints, which I would say could have been really helpful for me. I didn’t take it with really easy mistakes. I’m really disappointed about my level today, and it is what it is.”
Amongst other results today, there were also wins for Andrey Rublev, Daniil Medvedev, Ben Shelton, Felix Auger-Aliassime and rising star Joao Fonseca.
