Indian Wells Masters 2021 - Cameron Norrie becomes new British number one with dominant win over Diego Schwartzman
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Updated 14/10/2021 at 21:42 GMT
The 26-year-old was in devastating form, thrashing the Argentinean 6-0, 6-2 to reach the last four of a Masters 1000 event for the first time. By doing so, Norrie will overtake Dan Evans as the British number one, and he could yet finish the week inside the world's top 20 - an achievement he has never managed before.
Norrie eases past Schwartzman to reach Indian Wells semi-finals
Cameron Norrie will become the new British number one after thrashing Diego Schwartzman 6-0, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells Masters.
The 26-year-old's 45th win of the season means he will almost definitely become a top 20 player for the first time. He will go for a maiden Masters 1000 final against either Grigor Dimitrov or Hubert Hurkacz.
Norrie produced a brutal display in the first set and the tone was set in the opening game, breaking straight away to 15, before he repeated the trick in the third game, only this time to love.
Already Norrie was in control, with 89% of points on his first serve falling his way, but he achieved the third break of the set in the fifth game and wrapped up the bagel after just 31 minutes in the California sun.
Schwartzman could not live with his opponent’s intensity in the first set, but after a longer break to regather his thoughts, he was finally on the board at the start of the second - holding his serve and ironically goading the crowd.
Norrie, though, had not dropped his level too far, demonstrated by a magnificent drop shot at the net at full stretch following the Argentinean’s slice from the baseline
Schwartzman was on the attack, but it was clear he was trying to press that little bit too hard when he dropped serve in the third game, thumping what should have been an easy winner long to hand the break to Norrie.
A change of t-shirt, and the 11th seed was back in the set, taking Norrie to 0-40 before making the most of the third break point to level at 2-2. That resurgence was short lived, as Norrie reeled off the next four games to reach heights he has not yet achieved.
"It was such a big moment playing my first Masters 1000 quarter-final," he told Prime Video Sport.
"So pleased to be through, it's probably the biggest match and the biggest win of my career, with all the circumstances and all the pressures and I was really happy with how I handled everything."
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