Eastbourne–
Cameron Norrie defeated Brandon Nakashima 6-4 6-2 on Centre Court at Eastbourne Wednesday. He will face Maxime Cressy in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Cressy beat Dan Evans today to set up the clash with Norrie.
It was Norrie’s first win on grass this season, having lost to Grigor Dimitrov at Queen’s last week. Reflecting on the win, the Brit said, “I think just the difference today was I managed to execute and break serve and then keep momentum. I think I played just as well as last week. I was hitting the ball great last week. It was tough, you go out first round and got all week to think about it and to prepare for the next one.”
The player is still looking to improve despite the comfortable victory today with Wimbledon just around the corner. “I am trying to improve everything all the time. I am physically and mentally in the right place. Tennis is always going to come down to a few points here and there and making sure in those big moments I’m being the one going for it and taking the chances. Being British number one, going into Wimbledon, it’s the first time. Hopefully showing the British crowd and giving something to cheer about.
“I’m always trying to win in practice. I treat them like matches as much as I can. I have a sports psychologist that I talk to as well. I think you just have to be ready to take your chances and it comes with a lot of experience. I think maybe three or four years ago in those bigger moments, I was not as calm as I was and I tended to play a little bit too tentatively. Especially last year I was able to play aggressive and be the one moving the other guy and really taking a lot of chances.”
Cameron Norrie Looking Ahead to Wimbledon
Norrie has been seeded ninth for Wimbledon next week which is something the player takes confidence from. “Being seeded helps. I am going to take it one match at a time and I have still not reached the second week, so it would be nice to do that, and I guess the seeding helps. That’s the result of winning matches and stringing them together and I will obviously take that.
“Being ninth is pretty cool and pretty crazy. It all happened pretty quickly, getting up there, which has been a lot of fun, but yes, still means nothing, you know. You’ve still got to win the matches and today’s match is perfect for me to get a match under the belt, and then also to get a few more matches, hopefully this week, leading into a huge Wimby for me.”
The third round of Major tournaments has been a stumbling block for Norrie but he has faced some great players in this round. “I played some pretty cool matches, obviously to play Rafa [Nadal] in the French and Fed (Roger Federer) in Wimby and you take those, take a lot of experience from that. I am going to look at the draw to see, I think everyone does. I am not going to look too far ahead. Obviously, there is a lot of good players on the grass and a lot of dangerous guys.” The Brit will be hoping to do even better at this year’s tournament.
Main Photo from Getty.
