Cam Norrie dumped out of Queen’s as Korda lives up to Wimbledon ‘favourite’ tag

Seb Korda backed up his pre-match claim that he is “one of the favourites at Wimbledon” by knocking out Cam Norrie to reach the semi-finals at the cinch Championships. But the British No.1 has work to do to repeat his run to the last four at SW19 last year.

The American world No.32 is playing only his fourth event since reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals because of a wrist injury. But Korda played superbly to reach the last four of a grasscourt event for the first time beating Norrie 6-4 7-6 in only 86 minutes.

It ends British interest in the event and it is the first time since 2012 that there will be no British players in either the singles or doubles finals here. This was Norrie’s first event since his lacklustre showing at the French Open and he has not won three consecutive matches since March.

Norrie, who reached the final here in 2021, will now play exhibition matches at the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic next week to find his grasscourt form before Wimbledons starts on July 3.

After the first two quarter-finals went long, play did not start until just after 5pm on a warm summer evening but Korda quickly made up for lost time. He broke Norrie to lead 3-2 when the world No.13 slapped a backhand into the net.

The British No.1 saved another break point on his service at 2-4 with a delicate drop volley but Korda  took his third set point after only 37 minutes when the British No.1 hit a forehand long.

The second set followed a similar pattern with the American breaking again in the fifth game when Norrie hit a forehand into the net
The British No.1 fought back for his only break to level the set at 3-3 when Korda sent a backhand long and the second set went to a tiebreak.

But the American then took control to race to a 6-1 lead and he took his first of five match points when Norrie sprayed a forehand long.

Korda has now won six consecutive matches against left-handers since losing to Rafa Nadal in the second round of the Indian Wells Masters in 2022. He comes from fine sporting stock with his father Petr the 1998 Australian Open champion, his mother Regina a former world No.26 while his sisters Nelly and Jessica are both golf pros.

And with Andy Murray’s former fitness trainer Jez Green and physio Mark Bender now in his team, he feels he has the game to do more damage on grass.

After his second round win over his fellow American Francis Tiafoe, Korda said: I’m very confident in myself on the grass court. I move really well and definitely have a game that not very many people have. I’m an aggressive player, I like to come to the net, I have good hands, and I definitely feel as if I’m one of the favourites at Wimbledon.”