Frogs in the Pros: Norrie Advances to Australian Open 3rd Round

The TCU Three-Time All-American earned the No. 19 seed in the first Grand Slam of the year.

Cam Norrie, a former three-time TCU All-American, and current No. 1 British player, earned the No. 19 seed in this year’s Australian Open. 

The Australian Open, the first of four Grand Slams, began on Monday and runs through January 28 at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Former three-time TCU All-American Cameron Norrie, currently the No. 1 player in Britain, has advanced to the 3rd Round of the Australian Open / Getty Images

In his first-round match, Norrie won in straight sets over Juan Pablo Varillas. Varillas, from Peru, is ranked No. 81 in the world. The first set was tighter than most expected, but Norrie won it 6-4. He then went on to win the second set 6-4 and the third 6-2. 

His second-round match was not nearly as easy. Against Giulio Zeppieri, ranked No. 133 and from Italy, Norrie found himself in a deep hole. After losing the first set, 3-6, the second set went to a tiebreaker. Zeppieri won the tiebreaker 7-4 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Norrie would fight back and win the next three sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. 

Norrie is the last of seven British singles players left standing in the Australian Open.

Norrie faces Casper Ruud on Saturday in the 3rd-round matchup. Ruud is ranked No. 11 and is from Norway. Ruud also needed five sets to win his Round Two match. Norrie and Ruud have met three times before, with Ruud winning all three matches. 

This is the 5th consecutive Australian Open for Norrie. He has yet to advance past the 3rd Round in any previous appearance. Last year, he was eliminated in the 3rd Round. Norrie's best appearance in any of the four Grand Slam events was at the 2022 Wimbledon when we made it to the semifinal round. 

“He’s beaten me a few times in some really big matches,” said Norrie when asked about Ruud. “I’m going to look at those matches and see where I can improve.

“I think a lot of the time was down to execution and him staying a bit calmer than me in the bigger moments. Every time I played him, he served really, really well. I think his serve is quite underrated.

“I didn’t actually get a chance to watch one point of his (second-round) match, but I heard it was really high level from both. I’m looking forward to watching that one and then watching my previous matches with him to see what I can improve on and what I can do to make him uncomfortable out there.”

“He’s a tough competitor, for sure,” said Ruud of facing Norrie. “He’s raising his level the past three, four years.

“He has a cool story. Came from college, and took it to the next step from there. He’s a great player. I need to be on top of my game if I want to hang in there with him."

Norrie played for three years at TCU (2015-2017) and earned All-American honors each year. In his junior year (2017), he became the first player in program history to finish the season ranked No. 1 in the ITA Singles poll. He also set the TCU season singles winning percentage at .955 after going 21-1 at the No. 1 position that year.

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