Cam Norrie is knocked OUT of Wimbledon at the second round as 12th-seeded Brit is beaten in four sets by America’s Christopher Eubank on Court 1
Cameron Norrie walked out wearing sunblock which looked like war paint and perhaps he might have also summoned an inner Stuart Broad, whipping up Court 1 for a fight which put him in the path of an express train. He really could gave used something beyond his own physical limits.
For the most part, the people had nothing for him. A few limp attempts at collective enthusiasm. Someone squealing about the ‘Cam Cam’. At least 100 of the seats were empty and there was nothing resembling British partisanship. Norrie, being a quiet one, didn’t attempt to it conjure it. The absence of love for him is an enduring one.
He was blown away: despatched from the tournament and denied a repeat of lats year’s semi-final by the brutal power of an American late bloomer who battered him with a pistol serve and drained his optimism with a languid, almost casual single-handed backhand which did so much damage.
There were moments when Christopher Eubanks simply blew out his cheeks and flashed half a grin, as if to say he could not quite believe that that he was landing so many of those backhands, some of them sliced, down the line. Norrie kept waiting for the errors to come. They never did.
It wasn’t that Christopher Eubanks Norrie faced but it was still some punch he wielded, an unholy serve – 125mph regulation – which had blown the first set out of his reach within half an hour. The American sent down six aces in his first two service games, reaching into the sky for the delivery with his 6ft 7in frame. Norrie won just three points on that serve in a bewildering opening set.
Cameron Norrie has fallen to defeat in the second round at Wimbledon
America’s Christopher Eubanks looked in disbelief as he progressed to the third round
Norrie applauded the Wimbledon faithful as he departed following the defeat
He could have maybe used the energy of his improbable fan, Bon Jovi, with whom he hits, and who was watching in the arena. Living on a prayer pretty encapsulated where Norrie seemed to be after the Georgian, on the rise and in the top world 50 for the first time this month, had demonstrated a panache to go with the power, dropping to collect the occasional Norrie reply as he followed many of those serves in.
Norrie might not be a national treasure but he is a relentless individual, devoid of the swirl of distraction that surrounds some other British players, always on the road playing, rarely within the four walls of his Putney flat. The work paid a dividend as he worked his way back in.
He landed more returns on the big serves in the second set. He broke as errors crept in for the 27-year-old American during of the second set. He prevailed on his own serve in the face of two break points in the set’s critical fourth game.
There was nothing to take the breath away from him. Modestly good serve. 120mph max. The whippy left hand forehand down the land occasionally served him very well. It wasn’t fire meeting fire as he pulled a set back.
The second set was as good as it got for him. Eubanks rediscovered his own range. That backhand, eased down the line, earned him the first point of Norrie’s service game in the third. When he followed it up with another winner, the British No 12 seed shook his head, concerns then beginning to materialise as to whether he could actual find something to counter all this. A forehand slammed into the corner took the American to the vital early third set break, which left Norrie with a mountain to climb on the fourth.
He was clinging on for dear life thereafter, staving off six out of seven break points along the way to a tiebreak in the fourth set. He took then only break point he had – Eubanks double faulting at 0-30 in the fifth game and briefly struggling with the pressure – but the break back was inevitable. Norrie had fended off a match point at 5-4 to reach the decider, which he never looked in.
Eubanks related in the aftermath that his indifferent performance on grass at Surbiton ahead of these championships, when he was eliminated in the round of 32, had left him indifferent to this surface. ‘I decided, “grass isn’t for me,”’ he said. ‘I told people “I can’t wait to get back on a court where the bounce is consistent and high.”’ He felt differently now. ‘This is the biggest win of my career.’
The court stood for Eubanks and a few people launched into chants ‘USA’. Norrie left quickly, not seeming exactly sure what had hit him.
