Cameron Norrie capped a buzzing week at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open by battling from a set down to win the first Masters 1000 title of his career.
The player, who had not won a match at the BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells before this season, beat Nikoloz Basilashvili in three sets to become the first British man to win the Masters 1000 tournament. He is one step ahead of compatriots Andy Murray, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski who were only able to finish as runners-up.
“What an amazing week I’ve had at Indian Wells. It was a strange match. The match ended pretty quickly, then the last set, I thought it would last longer. He made some mistakes towards the end of the game,” said Cameron Norrie.
READ ALSO : Paula Badosa Aims For Tickets To WTA Finals After Success At Indian Wells
“I still don’t really understand what I’m going through. It’s been an amazing couple of weeks and I’m really happy with how I dealt with all the opportunities, all the crucial moments, all the games. I’m very happy to win the biggest title of my career.”
Heading into the final of the BNP Paribas Open, the Briton had a bit of a breakdown in his preparations after three pairs of his boots disappeared, something that happened to compatriot Murray at the tournament as well.
“Every day I leave my shoes on the locker. I think someone, I don’t know who, maybe someone from the janitor or something the night before came and they threw away the three pairs of shoes that I kept.
“I’ve been looking for it all day. I don’t know why people were against the British by stealing shoes but I couldn’t get them back.”
“It was quite difficult. Luckily, I didn’t lose my wedding ring like Andy did.”
The Los Cabos Open champion admitted that the incident bothered him a bit during the biggest final of his career to date because the good boots felt a little heavy.
Meanwhile, in the next few weeks, the 26-year-old will try to get a place in the season-ending tournament, the ATP Finals. He is now in tenth position in the ATP Finals standings with 2,830 points.
“I will be participating in Vienna, Paris and Stockholm, the last three tournaments indoors. It would be great to qualify for the ATP Finals, but I’m going to keep going, defending and overcoming what I can do. We’ll see how things go,” added Norrie who was outside the top 50 at this point last season.
“I’m looking forward to the tournament season indoors. I really like that field and never really went further in those tournaments, but I always played well. So I always lose in tight matches. Hopefully this season I can perform better.”
With a win at the BNP Paribas Open, Norrie debuted in the top 20, to be exact at number 15 in the world.
