‘Something to learn from’ – Racquet smash boost gives Cameron Norrie food for thought after Andrey Rublev loss

Cameron Norrie suggested he might need to vent his frustration more often after a racquet smash seemed to improve his level in defeat to Andrey Rublev at the US Open.

One of Norrie’s best patches of play came after he smashed his racquet when trailing by two sets and a break. He reeled off three points in a row afterwards to break straight back and then raced to 40-0 in his next service game.

“I think that was the best game of the match,” said Norrie afterwards.

“I played the only game I had chances really to break. So I felt like I was able to release a little bit. Obviously it’s not ideal to be breaking racquets and doing that. I very rarely do it, so I was able to kind of snap and change my energy and really lift after that.

“That was the part where I was moving the best. And doing that maybe something interesting to learn from that and maybe I can kind of, maybe not continue to break racquets, but do something different to kind of change the energy when I feel like too relaxed and too, like, chill on the court, and not really moving as well as I would like and missing second-serve returns uncharacteristically.”

Norrie made 35 unforced errors in the match, including plenty on his backhand side.

He also won just 37 per cent of points on his second serve.

Reflecting on his display, the seventh seed said: “I felt actually very relaxed, and I think maybe too relaxed.

“Usually in the other matches I was very nervous, like I said, and very tight, but I felt like I used that and I was a bit more kind of electric and I was a bit sharper and was able to run for balls.

“Today in two of the most important kind of departments of the game, the second-serve return I missed a lot and gave him a lot of free points there. Was probably my best part of my game, and I didn’t do that well. That’s part of it.

“I went through a stage in the second set, I wasn’t hitting my backhand, I was missing a lot. Errors on my backhand side was not like myself. I usually can rely on that side. And, yeah, I don’t know my backhand error count but it was probably nowhere near the same as the other matches.

“I felt like Andrey gave me really nothing, and he was very solid. All credit to him. I felt maybe the one time I did have a chance was when I ended up throwing my racquet, and I ended up getting a bit more energy and moving a lot better for the next kind of 20 minutes. That was probably the best part of the match for me.

“It was good learning for me. But, like I said, all credit to Andrey, he gave me nothing today and he deserved it more than me.”

Rublev will face either second seed Rafael Nadal or 22nd seed Francis Tiafoe in the quarter-finals.

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