Cameron Norrie defeated Diego Schwartzman to reach the Indian Wells semifinal. He would go on to win the title, but with that victory Norrie became only the sixth ATP player to win more matches than World #1 Novak Djokovic.
Norrie demolished Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinal to make his first Masters final. Defeating Nikoloz Basilashvili in the final, the Brit claimed the biggest win of his career to date.
Cameron Norrie and The Five Other Men with more victories than Novak Djokovic this year
Djokovic, still the top ranked player, has won 44 matches this year, and four titles. Three of those were Grand Slams in Australia, France, and Wimbledon.
Norrie has won to date 47 matches with two titles. The Brit could still qualify for the ATP World Tour finals in Turin. The Brit is only 160 points behind the final qualifying spot. Currently only six men have definitely qualified for the end of year event.
Reaching the latter stages of Indian Wells, Norrie joined an elite group of men with more victories this season than the World #1.
Andrey Rublev
Andrey Rublev is one spot higher than the Brit in the list. Purely because the Russian has lost fewer matches. However, Norrie has more titles. The Russian has one title, the Rotterdam Open. The World #6 has also won 47 matches this year. Rublev is fifth in the Race to Turin and will make the end of year final for the top eight players.
Alexander Zverev
World #4 Zverev has already qualified for the end of year final. He also has 47 wins and is only higher on the list as the German has lost only 13 matches. The German is currently tied on the same amount of titles as Djokovic. Zverev does not hold any Grand Slam titles. The German won the Gold Medal at the Olympic games and collected two Masters titles so far this season.
Casper Ruud
World #9 Ruud is having an immense year. The Norwegian has five titles this season. Ruud is one of the players that could stop Norrie qualifying for the end of year event. Ruud is third in the group of players with more wins that Djokovic. The Norwegian stands on 49 wins. Norrie and Ruud could potentially meet at any of the remaining events this season. Participation and victories are a must to guarantee qualification to Turin.
Daniil Medvedev
World #2 Medvedev has already qualified for Turin. 50 wins on tour and four titles, including the US Open Grand Slam, have helped. The Russian has had a consistent year. In the Grand Slams the Russian progressed to the fourth round at Wimbledon. Medvedev surpassed this at all other Slams. The Russian reached the quarter final or better.
Stefanos Tsitsipas
The man with the most tour wins this year to date is Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Greek has 54 tour wins under his belt but only two titles. Seedings at tournaments have helped the Greek keep his place in this list and in the top four. Tsitsipas is World #3. The Greek has hit the headlines regarding toilet breaks at the US Open (all within the rules). Brit Andy Murray, who was defeated by the Greek in a thrilling five set match, suggested that the length of time Tsitsipas took was too long. However, at the time, there was no ruling on the length of time a player was allowed to take.
Cameron Norrie joining this elite group is impressive. The Brit skipped the Olympics to concentrate on his world ranking. This has proved to be the correct decision. Norrie has improved his overall game and matured since turning professional four years ago.
Even though Djokovic is seventh on the list of most wins, the Serbian still shows consistency. Djokovic wants to end the year as #1. Doing so will hand the Serbian his record seventh year-end #1. Djokovic currently tied with Pete Sampras on six such titles. He will almost certainly end the year with seven.
Main Photo from Getty.
