UNITED CUP

December 31, 2022

Cameron Norrie

Team Great Britain

Press Conference

C. NORRIE/R. Nadal

3-6, 6-3, 6-4

Team Great Britain - 1

Team Spain - 0

THE MODERATOR: Congrats, Cam. Was this your best career win?

CAMERON NORRIE: I think it was, yeah. Especially on ranking and beating a guy like Rafa as the competitor that he is, I know it's his first match of the year, but it was a sick win. He absolutely chopped me the last five or four times I played him. Nice to get him once now. I really played well and held my nerve throughout the match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How did you win it? When you look, you were just touching on your record, never won a set off him, it was 10-0 to him, never won a match. So how did you do it this time?

CAMERON NORRIE: Yeah, actually I think honestly I always thought I had a good game to play him, and then I was getting chopped every time.

I think the first few times I played him on clay and on actually Piste Rafael Nadal in Barcelona as well, and played him once in Australia and once in Acapulco in the final. This is my third time on the hard courts and I felt I was able to neutralize the points a bit more and not having him dictate with his forehand so much.

I think that was due to me finding more depth on my forehand. I felt today honestly really good in the rallies, and the longer points, most of them went my way in the end.

I think even in that first set I was feeling comfortable from the baseline. I just missed a couple easy volleys and I got a little bit unlucky at net in a couple points he turned around at the net. A bit tough in that first set. I missed a few returns uncharacteristically in that first set as well. Once I dried up those errors, I thought it was a solid match after that.

Q. You went up 4-2 in that final set and then he was threatening to break back and Rafa had those breakpoints. Obviously never ever, ever, ever count out Rafa, but what allowed you to stay so focused at that moment to be able to hold serve there which was so crucial?

CAMERON NORRIE: Yeah, especially that 4-3 game I played some great points there. Some of the best level I think I had, and some of the points that were so physical. I was able just to tough out that game and then play a really solid game to serve it out. Yeah, that was the difference.

I won a couple of those longer points and I was able to execute in those bigger moments. With tennis, it's always going to come down to that, and I was able to do it better than him today. Usually he's so good at kind of turning those matches around.

I was able to stay focused and stay disciplined and hit my spots on the serve and execute the short forehand when I needed to. Tactically I think I played a pretty smart match.

Q. How important was it to have somebody like Henman there courtside and the rest of the team, and what was Tim saying to you?

CAMERON NORRIE: Massive. You know, I think the biggest thing is with these guys you have to have the belief to beat them. Tim was telling me the whole match, Look, you're playing better than him, you're looking good in the rallies. You can do it, you can beat this guy. He gave me a lot of belief.

Obviously that's the first steps to doing that, and having him there and my coach Facu and the rest of the team supporting me, they didn't drop the energy. That was huge. And obviously Tim has won a lot of big matches. He's actually played Rafa a couple times. Yeah, it was obviously huge to have him and the rest of the team behind me.