As Cameron Norrie and Alexander Zverev hardly need reminding, it’s the hope that kills you. This time, it was Norrie’s turn to feel the blood-shivering pain of dashed expectations.
Norrie the dream-killer beat Wimbledon’s latest pin-up boy, Jack Draper, in round two and thereby inherited the extra weight of love from his compatriot’s fan base, only to find the world No 4 waiting for him, a ready-made nightmare, lurking on Centre Court like a ravenous eagle.
Neither had dropped a set in their first two matches, but Zverev emphatically confirmed his pre-match favouritism to win 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (15) in just over two and a half hours.
He will be devilishly hard to stop in the second week, as long as his booming serve remains so lethal. He was up at 130mph for most of the afternoon, powering down 15 aces.
Norrie, the man with more homes than your average Canada Goose, was up for the fight against an opponent who has sometimes struggled to deliver on his promise – interrupted by off-court distractions, it has to be said – but is now playing “better than ever”, according to John McEnroe.
Norrie had his friends in the commentary box too, none more vociferous than Nick Kyrgios, who warned against writing him off, with good reason. Norrie’s tennis – sometimes as mixed as his Scots-Welsh-South-African-New Zealand heritage – has been back to near its peak on his seventh visit to the championships, where he has made the fourth round only once. This was a different level altogether.
With home expectations his extra baggage ever since a spectacular Davis Cup debut for his adopted country six years ago (and eight months into his professional career), Norrie’s progress has been steady rather than scintillating.
But, with Andy Murray farewelled to bits by Sue Barker two nights earlier (and then robbed of one more hurrah after Emma Raducanu’s late withdrawal from their mixed-doubles match), Norrie was pitched back into the limelight as Britain’s last man standing, against Zverev – imperious, powerful and oozing menace after giving up 15 games in six sets before this match.
With ingrained British suspicion of the elements, the roof was drawn across even before they warmed up – which was as well, given it began to bucket down outside. However, there was no hiding the storm coming Norrie’s way off the whirring racket of his languid foe.
Norrie, who took Zverev to a fifth-set tie-break in the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open, began by holding to love inside two minutes. As did the German. This was going to be either a quicksilver grass-court shootout or another grind, Norrie’s preferred route.
The first cracks appeared in the seventh game – often pivotal – as Norrie scrambled to save two break points, but not a third. The German held off a fightback and pocketed the first set in little over half an hour.
The contest meandered a little, neither player in the ascendancy for long. There was a minor scare at 2-2 when Zverev, hunting down a wide return on the backhand, crashed into the turf near the net post under the umpire’s chair, his left knee hyper-extending as he fell. He was up and running after brief courtside treatment, although he did not look entirely comfortable under pressure.
Norrie double-faulted in the ninth game, saved one of two break points with an ace, then overcooked a forehand. When Zverev served out for 2-0, all he needed to do was stay on top of his game, look after his suspect left knee and a date in the second week was his. If only tennis were that simple.
They fought their way to the tie-break, where Zverev came with an 18-10 season’s log to Norrie’s 6-15. Hope tugged insistently at Norrie’s shoulder, and five times he was a point away from taking the match into a fourth set. He won a 25-shot rally, the longest of the match, to save a fourth match point, then salvaged another as the shootout dragged on like a family feud. But a tired forehand drifted long and one of the tournament’s longest tie-breaks was done.
“He’s playing unreal,” Norrie said of Zverev. “For me, he’s one of the big favourites, for sure.”
