Cameron Norrie not thinking about his 'tough' clash against Carlos Alcaraz as he prefers to take things 'step by step'

Cameron Norrie carries the weight of becoming the second British man since Andy Murray to win the Wimbledon Championship on his shoulders. The former World No.8 overcame Nicolas Jarry in a five-set thriller on Sunday (July 6). He will now face World No.2 Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals but isn’t worried about the threat the Spaniard possesses.

Alcaraz earned his place at the quarter stages of the tournament after coming from behind to beat Andrey Rublev. The 22-year-old is now set to face Norrie for the seventh time in his career. He holds a firm grip in their head-to-head record 4-2 against the British star, but lost their most recent encounter at the 2023 Rio Open.

At the time Norrie beat Alcaraz, he was among the top 20 players in the world. In fact, he reached a career-high of World No.8 in September 2022, just two months after reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon. Alcaraz won their first three fixtures but Norrie then won two of their last two meetings.

Norrie, who had endured a very rough patch in his career in the first four months of the year, arrived at the Geneva Open with a 10-11 win-loss record. But since he has hit the best form of his career, reaching the second week of the Roland Garros and then reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon for the second time.

Since Geneva, he holds a standout 10-4 record on tour and is currently playing his best tennis after a long while. After his 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-7(7), 6-7(5), 6-3 win over Chilean Nicolas Jarry, he was asked about his clash against Alcaraz and ultimately winning the title. The World No.43 revealed that he’s currently focused on taking things step by step:

From now on, everything becomes more challenging, although I’ve already played several tough matches, and Alcaraz and Sinner are still in the mix. There are still many matches to play, many matches to win, so I prefer to take it step by step. I am very happy with how I finished this last match, my body is fine, I feel I’m in a good place, hitting the ball well and confident. I have great faith in my heart rate performance, my lung capacity; this helps me to support myself when those slightly longer match days come, although it may be false confidence, but I accept it.

Carlos Alcaraz says facing Cameron Norrie will be very difficult

Carlos Alcaraz is no stranger to Cameron Norrie. The Spaniard faced the British star on many occasions during his early career. Even though he achieved several victories against the former World No.8, he hasn’t forgotten how difficult their match-up has always been, despite their last encounter being over three years ago.