May 31, 2025
Paris, France
Press Conference
C. NORRIE/J. Fearnley
6-3, 7-6, 6-2
THE MODERATOR: Well done, Cam. How does it feel now to be in the second week of Roland Garros?
CAMERON NORRIE: Very good. It's been a few times losing in the third round, so it was nice to win that one today. I played a very solid match, so happy to be through.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Have you ever had to stop your service motion because fireworks have been going off outside before? What was that like, that match?
CAMERON NORRIE: I haven't, and actually I was putting my bag down, and the umpire said, Yeah, there's just a couple of fireworks. We'll just play on. No worries.
I was thinking it was just going to be, like, a few of them in the warmup, but yeah, it was at the most random times. It would go away for kind of 15, 20 minutes and then come back.
I think I was 6-5 serving and about to hit a second serve, and then suddenly one literally felt like it was right next to me went off. I had to stop.
But, yeah, it was another factor pretty difficult for both of us to be playing with that going on. It felt like it was happening within the stadium. It was a different factor, but no, I've not had that one before.
Q. I'm just going to say, can you relate that to any other incident in your career where there's been noise outside the court and the arena that's impacted the play?
CAMERON NORRIE: Not really. I think one time I played Cilic in Rome. There was a helicopter circling us for the whole match, it felt like. That was kind of another strange one, but no, nothing like this.
Q. You don't have experience of something like this before, but do you think the fact that you've just been around the tour longer, that you had six years more experience on Jake, maybe helped you deal with the situation better?
CAMERON NORRIE: Yeah, I know it was a difficult match I think for both of us. I actually felt very, surprisingly, relaxed before the match, leading into the match.
I've lost the third round a few times already, and obviously there was another factor or couple of factors on top of that with Jake being British, Jake also going to TCU, the same university as me. He's a really top player.
I don't really see any holes in his game, but for me I was just really excited to enjoy the challenge of playing Jacob. Yeah, I just wanted to focus more on myself, you know, play the ball. Like I said, I've just been enjoying my tennis, and I think I wanted to do that again. Another chance to play a really competitive match against one of the best players in the world at the moment.
For me it's so impressive to see Jacob, how he's progressed. He absolutely crushed the challenger tour. He's come through. His first clay season, you know, to make the third round and to be winning matches and to be moving like he is on the clay is extremely impressive.
I'm really, really looking forward to seeing him progress, and for him to be playing the way he is on a surface he's not spent that much time, it's a lot of good things and a lot of positives for him.
Q. Now it's fourth round at all four slams. That's a really big milestone. It must give you a lot of confidence and satisfaction.
CAMERON NORRIE: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it was a little bit nice to make the fourth round here. That match with Daniil was so tough. It was such a big test for me. To get through that, I thought I can take a lot of confidence from that.
And to make the second week for the first time is so, so good and at a time where I was not really stringing a lot of matches and a lot of wins together. So it came at a pretty different time. I was able to build from the momentum that I've really struggled to get at the end of -- well, from the last year and a half, not being able to get momentum for different reasons.
So I think, yeah, it was really fun and a really good week so far, and there's still plenty of tennis to be played, which I'm excited for.
Q. We've seen many times over the years that when a player gets a big win and such a tough win as it was against Medvedev, that sometimes it's difficult to maintain that momentum, right? I'm curious, just after winning your last two matches in straight sets, like tough straight sets, how pleased are you with the way you've managed to kind of maintain that and just keep on doing what you've been doing?
CAMERON NORRIE: Yeah, really, really happy with that. Like I said, I was so tired after playing Daniil, more mentally. Just, every point was so tough, and it was such a big test for me.
Then, yeah, to go play two different players, and I played really 7 out of 10 for the whole time. I was really able to play consistent kind of vintage Norrie tennis. Just playing 7 out of 10 for three and a half hours or as long as I needed to do that. I did it again today, so I was really happy with the way I performed.
It wasn't unreal. It wasn't bad. There was maybe a loose game, when I served for the match. But, yeah, that was about it, 7 out of 10 tennis got it done.
Q. I'm wondering whether you felt you had a point to prove against Jacob with him being British No. 2 this year, and maybe that fired you up a little bit more?
CAMERON NORRIE: To be honest, not really. For me he's such a nice guy, and his tennis, he's proven it. He's been winning a lot of matches. He's been winning more than me, so he deserves to be the No. 2 player.
Yeah, I wanted to go and play my tennis and just keep enjoying it. It was obviously a big match, and there's a lot of people in British tennis watching, a lot of people in Fort Worth, Texas, were following the match. I think they were so excited to have, for sure, a TCU Horned Frog through to the fourth round regardless who won. So there were probably a lot of extra things on it.
Yeah, I think I really respond well in those matches. It was pretty similar to when I played Jack last year at Wimbledon. Yeah, I played the ball today, and I played decent and got the win.
Q. Two British men into the second week here for the first time in more than 60 years. I just wondered, did you watch any of Jack, or are you following his run?
CAMERON NORRIE: Yeah, I was following. I didn't actually watch much of the match since I was getting myself ready, but he must have played well. He won straight sets against Fonseca.
I didn't see any of it, but yeah, he's cruised through pretty comfortably. Yeah, it's great for British tennis to have two men through.
Yeah, I'm not sure. I think he plays Bublik next. It's another good opportunity for him. He's playing really well, Bublik as well.
And for me too, I'm really happy to be through to the fourth round, like I said, and lots more tennis for both of us to be played. Not just this week, but for the rest of the year.
So it's really good and really exciting even to have two Brits playing in the third round. It was just really cool to see.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports


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