Cam Norrie knocked out world No.11 Casper Ruud to beat his highest ranked player ever at a Grand Slam. And the brilliant British No.1 reached the Australian Open fourth round for the first time – and only the third time in the Majors.
Norrie had only beaten only one top 20 player in his 12 matches – and his best Grand Slam victory in terms of ranking had been against No.13 Diego Schwartzman at the 2022 US Open. And Ruud had won their three previous encounters on the ATP Tour for the loss of only one set.
But instead of his usual grinding, baseline style, the former Wimbledon semi-finalist took the attack to the Norwegian and won 6-4 6-7 6-4 6-3 in just over three hours in the noisy John Cain Arena. He hit 63 winners and won the point 41 out of the unprecedented 56 times he came to the net. Norrie was only broken once and saved nine break points.
It is the best British singles win here since Kyle Edmund beat No.3 Grigor Dimitrov on his way to the 2018 semi-finals. The highest-ranked player Norrie had beaten at Melbourne Park was No.26 seed Dan Evans in the 2021 first round.
He will play the winner of the night match between No.6 seed Alex Zverev and teenage American Alex Michelsen.
Norrie came back from two sets down against Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri in the second round but he got off to a quicker start today.
He broke Ruud’s second service game to lead 2-1 when the Norwegian sent a forehand long and saved a break point when he served for the set at 5-4 before hitting a crosscourt winner. It set the pattern for the match as Norrie won most of the big points.
The exception came after the British No.1 served two aces to take the second set to a tiebreak. He had two set points at 6-4 but pushed a short backhand into the tramlines on the first and was unable to return a big Ruud serve on the second. The Norwegian took his second set point with an ace to level the match.
The momentum seemed with the former world No.2 when Ruud made his first break of serve after nearly two hours to lead 3-2 in the third when Norrie could not retrieve a blistering forehand return. But the No.19 seed immediately broke back when he ran Ruud into each corner with laser-like backhands before finishing off the break point with a volley.
And on Norrie’s first set point at 4-5, he followed the recipe with another backhand approach to the Ruud backhand which the Norwegian could only slice into the net.
The British No.1 kept up the pressure in the fourth set and broke to lead 3-1 with another charge to the net where he followed a forehand volley with a backhand volley winner.
He staved off Ruud’s last stand by saving a breakpoint at 4-2 with a deadly overhead.
And Norrie took his first match point with another smash – and shook his fists in delight.
Norrie said: “I had to play really brave. I nearly won the second set but Casper served well. I just kept a really good level throughout the match. I really enjoyed it. I stuck to my game plan and got through. I was working really hard in the off-season to be a little more aggressive. I managed to free up today and come forward. I managed to win a lot of points at the net. I was just enjoying myself out there. I played really free. I loved it.”
In the third court on Melbourne Park always favoured by Andy Murray, chants of “Norrie, Norrie” were mixed with the cry of “Ruuuuud”.
“It was a great atmosphere,” Norrie added. “It was so special to play on this court – I had only practised on it before. I could tell everyone had a few drinks on a Saturday afternoon. There were all sorts of nicknames. I heard one saying ‘Noz Dog’.”
Ruud has now lost three of his last four matches against British players, including to Liam Broady in the second round of Wimbledon last year.
