British Cameron Norrie defeated Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in an electric match to enter the Cincinnati Masters 1000 semifinal. He stayed calm to halt a resurgent Alcaraz 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 6-4. This was Norrie’s 3rd win over 19-year-olds this week. He previously defeated Holger Rune and Ben Shelton this week.
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Having won a close tiebreak in the first set, Norrie wasted his 4-1 lead in the second set. Alcaraz made the most out of the opportunity while playing an insane level of tennis in the closing moments of the set. He produced the shot of the tournament at 5-4 in the 2nd set tiebreak, which got the crowd blowing up.
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One of the fittest players on tour, Norrie capitalized on his strength later during the deciding set. He saved a break point during the opening game but fell behind 1-3 as Carlos stayed confident. Norrie responded immediately earning a crucial break that turned decisive. He did not allow Alcaraz to have any breakpoints later and closed the set out with a perfect ace.
“I just wanted to hang tough with him and I think the only place I had him beat was the legs and the physicality,” he continued. “So I was just trying to make every rally as physical as I could and make it tough for him to finish points,” Norrie said.
Reactions from Cameron Norrie after the match
“That was unbelievable,” Norrie said after the three-hour thriller. “Credit to Carlos. I was up a set and a break, 4-1, and I kind of lost a little bit of vision. ” Norrie also said he was thinking a bit too much about the finish line and not on how to win points.
Cameron Norrie saved 11/13 break points during the match. With the win, he moved to the 9th spot in the ATP live rankings and 11th in the race to Turin. Carlos Alcaraz is now 17-4 in Masters 1000 this season. He lost the chance to win his 3rd Masters title and move up to the 2nd spot in the ATP rankings.
Alcaraz’s loss will give Stefanos Tsitsipas some opening to move up to 4th in the rankings by winning the title here. He will face Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals which would be their 10th meeting. Cameron Norrie will face Borna Coric in the other semifinal and will look to half the latter’s dream run this week.
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