‘More mistakes, for the right reason’ – Laura Robson praises brave Cameron Norrie after Australian Open exit

Laura Robson praised Cameron Norrie for his fearless display despite losing a five-set thriller to Alexander Zverev at the Australian Open, admitting that the Brit’s team “looked a little bit devastated” with the defeat.

The 28-year-old has clearly added greater variety and attacking intentions to his game in the off-season, with Norrie keeping Zverev guessing throughout with a fine array of shot-making.

Although his unforced error count was high, particularly on the forehand wing, he continued to take the match to Zverev and almost got his reward.

“He can be so proud of himself with the way he played this whole tournament,” said Robson.

“The way he’s started this year off, recognising all the things he could have done differently over the last year, coming out, and putting them to work instantly. That’s been the most impressive thing for me.

“Sometimes, when you work on being more aggressive in the off-season and work on coming forward, it’s so hard to deliver it in a match, where you think, ‘Oh, the scoreline is 30-30, it’s deuce, it’s maybe not the right time’.

“But he committed to it and accepted that he was going to make some more mistakes, but that was for the right reasons.

“I saw his coach and everyone looked a little bit devastated. They’re so proud of him because he left it all out there.”

Norrie claimed a first win over Casper Ruud in the third round, while he also roared back from two sets down to beat Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri in the second round.

It was Norrie’s first appearance in the last 16 at Melbourne and gives him “lots to build on for the rest of the year”, according to Tim Henman.

“Cam will be particularly disappointed because he did so much good work. He showed how capable he is coming forward. He came forward nearly 60 times in this match and winning 39 of those points,” said Henman.

“That’s something we haven’t necessarily seen. It was so effective against Casper Ruud. Once it got to that fifth set tie-break, it was a flip of a coin.

“We know that Cam can play so consistently with that heavy forehand and flat backhand but if you’re going to add a string to your bow and bring other attributes, you’ve got to do it on the match court and he’s worked on that in the off-season and it got him a great win against Casper Ruud, who he’d never beaten before.

“It got him incredibly close against Zverev and hopefully this is something that he can build on because it makes him a more complete player. It makes him less predictable and more dangerous. Really disappointing that he couldn’t find a way past Zverev, but lots to build on for the rest of the year.”

Zverev has the ominous task of facing Carlos Alcaraz in his next encounter.