LOS CABOS, MEXICO – Cameron Norrie comes off a big week in Atlanta, but now will look to build on that with another crucial week in Los Cabos.
Cameron Norrie had a fantastic week in Atlanta last week, where he made the semi-finals, but now will look to continue picking up some important match-wins when he plays Los Cabos this week.
Last week, Norrie really continued to show what he really has been showing all year. He thrives in the position as a considerable underdog and he delivered three wins as the unlikely winner against Jeremy Chardy, Nick Kyrgios and Malek Jaziri before bowing out to America’s Ryan Harrison, a match where he led by a set.
The top players find a way to never hit the stop button and to try and build on important weeks of tennis, and that is how they are so consistent. Norrie did a fantastic job of showing that sort of consistency when playing the Challenger circuit, but a big week in Los Cabos would help him improve his ranking even more as he sets his sights on potentially breaking the Top-50. He is currently at a career high of No.74 in the world.
The first opponent for Norrie in Los Cabos is India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran. The Indian is vastly inexperienced at this level, having only played two matches at tour-level, both of those matches coming in Stuttgart on the grass earlier this year.
Gunneswaran plays with a tricky left-handed serve, very similar to Norrie in a way, and always looks to run around his backhand to hit as many forehands as possible. The backhand is a shot he uses to set up the forehand, which is a very good weapon when given time and even when moving out wide on the stretch.
The Indian has never broken into the World’s Top-150, playing all of his tennis at the lower tiers of the sport, but is accustomed to the quicker hard-courts. The British No.2 really is understandably the favourite, but it will be fascinating to see how Norrie fares in a very unfamiliar role for him.