Wimbledon 2025: Cam Norrie boosted by British crowd in third round win
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Cam Norrie is through to the fourth round of Wimbledon for the second time in his career after coming through a tight straight sets match against Italy’s Mattia Bellucci.
The British No.3 came back from a slow start to win 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-3 against the world No.73 over two hours and 31 minutes on No.1 Court.
Norrie will face qualifier Nicolas Jarry who knocked out Brazil’s Joao Fonseca in the third round.
The Brit is no stranger to the later rounds of a grand slam as he’s now in the last 16 for the fifth time - becoming just the sixth British player in the Open Era to reach the men’s singles fourth round on five or more occasions – after Andy Murray, Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski, Roger Taylor and John Lloyd.
Norrie was back on his beloved No.1 Court today where he saw off 12th seed Frances Tiafoe across four sets in the second round.
The Brit spoke about how much the crowd lifted him in key points today as he became the last British men’s singles player standing.
“Honestly you guys were amazing today," he said addressing the crowd. "Every single big moment you got loud and really changed the momentum so a big factor in the match and I’ve got to thank you guys for that – it was amazing.
“I honestly don’t really care about that too much (being the last British man in the singles), I was just enjoying my tennis on this court, it was so fun.
"I think that was even better for me to start a little bit slower and for him to have a few chances and to play a really good tie break again. I just tried to stay as solid as I could and tried to ride the waves and weather the storm when I needed to.
"To be honest, it was a lot of fun. It was another battle, and I’m happy to be through, it was such a good match."
I was just enjoying my tennis on this Court 1, it was so fun. I was just hitting the ball, playing point for point and the atmosphere was amazing and I was so happy to be back on this court.
A scrappy Norrie fought back from a break down, holding off the Italian's pressure to save the next six break points.
A growing number of errors from the Italian helped Norrie back in the set and with the crowd in full voice, the Brit managed to force his way to a tie-break.
Serving with set point at 6-5 in the tie-break, Norrie came through the longest rally of the match at 24 strokes before a wide ball from his opponent gave him what proved to be a crucial opening set.
A strong start to the second set then helped Norrie keep his momentum going - breaking twice before securing a two set lead with his fifth ace of the match.
Norrie rattled off five of the opening six games in the third as the mistakes came in thick and fast for the Bellucci - the Italian racking up 17 errors compared to the Brit's nine.
Nerves hit as the Brit was serving for the match at 5-2 and the Italian pulled back a break but Norrie wasn't done yet. He capitalised on to Bellucci's serve one final time - winning another long rally to seal a well deserved victory.
