Cam Norrie seals 10th career Davis Cup win with victory over Nicolai Budkov Kjaer
• 3 minute read
British No.2 Cam Norrie ticked off a new career milestone in claiming his 10th win for the Lexus Great Britain Davis Cup team in their Qualifier tie against Norway.
Norrie withstood a strong test from ATP Next Gen semi-finalist and former junior Wimbledon champion Nicolai Budkov Kjaer to win 6-4, 6-4.
With Jack Draper’s commanding win over Viktor Durasovic in the first rubber, Great Britain take a 2-0 lead into day two in Oslo. The Brits need just one more win to book their place in the Davis Cup Qualifiers second round.
It was a performance full of experience from the world No.26, absorbing the pressure from the big-serving Norwegian and coming out on top in the decisive points.
"He (Kjaer) is a really talented player," Norrie said after the match. "We’ve practiced a lot in Monaco. I wanted to make it a physical match and I was able to do that in the first set. I think I was a bit fortunate to win that first set 6-4, he was serving really well.
"I had to really play a couple of good points to break. The physicality in the first set accumulated well and I was able to tap into that small advantage in the second set."
During the opener, Kjaer went on a run of 16 straight points on serve, before the British star came back from 30-0 down to break at 4-4 and take the set.
The Norwegian finally got a breakthrough in the second, and let out a huge roar to the home crowd as he broke and then went on to take a 4-1 lead.
Despite trailing, Norrie kept calm and waited for his moment. The British star has played the pressure points well in his matches in Auckland and Melbourne so far this season, and brought his level again when it mattered most.
Once he broke back, momentum was all in Norrie’s favour and the British star reeled off five games in a row to seal an impressive win.
It’s a significant moment in the Briton’s career to reach the 10-win mark for a Davis Cup career that started eight years prior.
Norrie played his first match for the Lexus GB Davis Cup team back in 2018 with one of the most impressive debut wins in recent tournament history.
The Briton came back from two sets down to beat Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 and announce himself on the Davis Cup stage.
Since then, Norrie has been a staple in Captain Leon Smith’s side. In 2021, he helped the Brits to a quarter-final with wins over Czechia’s Jiri Lehecka and France’s Arthur Rinderknech.
The following year he claimed a scalp over Taylor Fritz at the Finals in Glasgow, and then played a crucial role in winning both his rubbers against Colombia in the 2023 Qualifiers.
Norrie returned to Davis Cup action in September last year against Poland in World Group I Play-Off. The former top 10 star beat Olaf Pieczkowski and Tomasz Berkieta to clinch his country’s place back in the 2026 Qualifiers.
If Norway were to pull back the first two matches tomorrow, Norrie could be in line to face Durasovic in the tie decider.
