Cameron Norrie feels Carlos Alcaraz was unaffected by injury in Rio Open final, says keeping points short only played to Spaniard's benefit
Cameron Norrie believes Carlos Alcaraz was unaffected by his injury in the Rio Open final, and that keeping the points short benefited the Spaniard.
British No. 1 Norrie won his fifth ATP singles title on Sunday, February 26, defeating top seed Alcaraz in a thrilling Rio Open final. The 27-year-old overcame a set deficit to defeat the young Spaniard 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.
The triumph comes just seven days after Norrie, ranked 13th in the world, lost to Alcaraz in the Argentina Open final. The victory on Sunday gave the Brit his first title of 2023 and only his second on clay after his success at the 2022 Lyon Open.
Following that, Cameron Norrie was asked to comment on Carlos Alcaraz's injury, which seemed to trouble him during the final. He responded by saying that he had no idea about it because he didn't see Alcaraz taking any injury time off in the third set.
"Actually didn’t see, no, because I broke to go for 3 in the second set and then he called the trainer and then he actually didn’t take the injury timeout at all in the match. So I don’t know really what it was," Norrie said.
The Brit added that as the Spaniard didn't want to play any long rallies due to the injury, his gameplay became more aggressive. This in turn aided Alcaraz in taking the second set away from his opponent.
"And for me for me maybe it was even better for him because he was able to play more aggressive and I was up a break for three and he played an unbelievable game to break me in the second set to go for all and then yeah, maybe in the long term," Norrie reflected.
"He didn’t want to play too many longer rallies, but I actually don’t know really what was going on.
"I don’t know what he said to you guys, but in a way that helped him, he wanted to play short points and he was just hitting winners with the forehand and especially in that third set so I had to just keep running and keep going and make the rallies as long as possible."
"I just had to change; I had to suffer even more and... dig really deep" - Cameron Norrie on winning the Rio Oprn final after being a set down
Cameron Norrie also discussed how he won the match despite being one set down in the third set, saying that he became extremely patient despite the difficulty.
"It was tough because he looked a little bit physically tired but he was playing even better and so aggressive. So I just had to keep telling myself ‘He can’t keep playing like this and kind of keep hitting winners like this,’" he said.
"So I had to be really patient and then also I got up a break and then he had almost four winners so it was really tough to play with him."
Norrie went on to say that he had to change his strategy and dig deep to win because it wasn't an easy match. He also slipped and fell down on the line at one point, making it difficult for him to play.
"He looked a little bit tired but then he was moving really well again and hitting the ball really aggressive and the fine line was really tough to really read because he was trying to make the point short but, yeah, I just had to change, I had to suffer even more and I had to dig really deep," Cameron Norrie said.
"It was not looking easy to match because I was breakdown and I was pretty tired. I slipped and fell on the line, it was a little bit slippery, and I kind of played a couple loose points up to that. Go down a break and then I had to really fight hard and I was able to do that," he added.
Cameron Norrie will next compete in the Acapulco Open in Mexico, which begins on February 28.