Cameron Norrie says goal is to reach No. 1 after ‘great year’ ahead of Diriyah Tennis Cup and Australian Open

Cameron Norrie says he is determined to build on a “great year” and has ambitions to get to No. 1 in the world.

Norrie had a strong season with two titles (Delray Beach and Lyon) and a run to the Wimbledon semi-finals, which was his best-ever Grand Slam performance, helping him to a career-high No. 8 in the rankings.

He also recorded wins over world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and top-10 players Stefanos Tsitsipas, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Holger Rune.

Norrie finished the season ranked at No. 14 in the world.

“It’s been a great year, especially being able to back up last year was huge for me,” Norrie told The National.

“There were a lot of highlights, especially Wimbledon, making the semi-finals and having my family and friends there watching and supporting.

“But from there it was straight into focusing on the next events. As a tennis player, you don’t really get to enjoy when you’re doing well, but looking back, having some time off resting in London, I’ve been going through a few things and there are definitely some highlights.

“On the flip side, as a player you always want more and I think there are some areas where I could or should have done more, but you look at it and it was a great year. I want to do even more next year so there are a few things to work on as well.”

Norrie was ranked outside the top 70 at the start of the 2021 but has impressed with his performances over the last two years.

However, he says there is still room for him to improve.

“There are a lot more eyes on me now: going into Wimbledon as British No. 1 then having the run I did, I feel like I am more well known in the UK.

“But for me, that is not the goal: it’s to be world No 1. So, I’m not really thinking about that. There are still 13 players better than me so I need to improve.”

He will join five top-10 players – world No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas, world No. 7 Daniil Medvedev, world No. 8 Andrey Rublev, world No. 9 Taylor Fritz and world No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz – at the event.

Norrie will also then play the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi alongside world No. 1 Alcaraz, world No. 3 Casper Ruud, Tsitsipas and Rublev.

“I wanted to be around the best players in the world and there’s no better place to do that than in a beautiful city and with nice weather, playing outside and similar conditions to Australia,” Norrie said.

“I don’t think I’ve played my best in Australia, so I wanted to try something different and I was fortunate to get the call up to this event.

“To play these important matches before even more important matches in Australia will help for my goals and my expectations so it’s cool to be involved in this tournament.”

Norrie has lost in the first round in three of his four appearances at the Australian Open. He made the third round in 2021.

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