It has been three and a half years since Cameron Norrie departed the Indian Wells Tennis Garden having shocked his sport by winning one of its most important trophies. A rise into the top 10 of the ATP rankings and a Wimbledon semi-final followed soon after.
Despite two extremely positive earlier performances during the past week in the desert, Norrie remains a considerable distance from reproducing his success of old. The 29-year-old was outclassed in the third round of Indian Wells by the No 10 seed Tommy Paul, whose greater weapons and confidence in the decisive moments earned him a 6-3, 7-5 win.
After avery difficult season last year, where he missed three months because of an arm injury after struggling with his form for most of the time, Norrie has struggled to find his momentum again, falling to No 77 in the rankings.
Still, there have recently been glimmers of hope. He reached the third round this week by playing some of his best tennis in more than a year and his second-round win against the No 24 Jiri Lehecka marked his first top-25 victory since the Australian Open last year.
Although both players struggled early on, Paul eventually took control, breaking up the lengthy, attritional exchanges Norrie tried to drag him into with his greater weight of shot and determination to close down the end. Norrie fought hard until the finish, pulling himself back into the match in set two by retrieving Paul’s break with a run of 10 successive points.
However, Norrie’s lack of confidence in many of the decisive moments was summed up by the final game of the match. Down 6-5, he served three double faults, including one on match point. This time, Norrie will leave Indian Wells with far more modest gains. He has made genuine progress this week, but there is a long path before him as he tries to find his way back towards the top of the game.
Meanwhile, the British No 1 Katie Boulter lost 6-0, 7-5 to the seventh seed Elena Rybakina in the third round. After being thoroughly outplayed in the opening set, Boulter fought hard and gradually imposed herself on the 2023 champion. She served for the second set at 5-4 but Rybakina won the last three games. Boulter, the 25th seed, was competing for the first time since the Australian Open after nursing a foot injury throughout February.
