The Julys of 2022 and 2025 saw record-breaking heat, the reforming of an iconic Britpop band, uncertainty over the Chancellor’s position and one man leading a sole charge into the second week of Wimbledon.
It was Pulp and Sajid Javid three years ago; Oasis and Rachel Reeves this time but the constant is the heat and Cam Norrie.
The Brit was the No 9 seed and at the peak of his powers in 2022 when he lost to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. He came into these Championships as the world No 61 but if anything his tennis has been even more potent and he won a four hour and 27 minute epic against 6ft 7in Nicolas Jarry in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals.
The mountainous Chilean sent down an avalanche of winners: 103 of which 46 were aces. Yet Norrie managed to break him twice and, most crucially, clung on to his own more humble serve for the entire match, saving every one of the eight break points he faced.
It was a performance of colossal mental strength. He restricted himself to 26 unforced errors – only three in the first set – compared to 71 from his opponent. The final knockings were 6-3, 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 6-3. Norrie had a match point in the third set tiebreak and had to wait two hours for a second, which he won with an extraordinary, vintage chasing rally on match points and literally rolled around the court in ecstasy.
Cameron Norrie is through to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon after beating Nicolas Jarry
Norrie is the only British singles player still in contention at this year’s Championships
A glance at Jarry’s ranking of 143rd would suggest Norrie should not have required five sets to see him off. But Jarry has fallen down the pecking order due to his struggles with vestibular neuritis, a condition caused when a nerve linking ear to brain becomes inflamed. Symptoms include loss of balance, vertigo and dizziness. Initially it was impossible to play tennis at all and he still experiences episodes when the symptoms strike.
But in coming through qualifying here he has played tennis worthy of his previous peak of world No16, and under the true and fast conditions of a roofed grass court this was a tremendous win for Norrie.
Just as in 2022, Norrie has done much of his damage on No 1 Court, his favourite arena in the world. This was his ninth win in 10 matches on Wimbledon’s second stage and he awaits the winner of Carlos Alcaraz v Andrey Rublev.
Like Jarry, Norrie’s ranking has fallen well below its peak. There was an arm injury last year which led to some tweaks to his forehand technique and some growing pains as he attempted to add more attacking weaponry to his game.
And there was plenty of that offensive play in this match. Some knifing volleys, dinked drop shots and even the odd big forehand. But this was a victory all about Norrie’s more ingrained skill set: relentless running, the absorption of an opponent’s power and the determination to just stick ball after ball back in court.
Norrie was comfortably the better player across the first two sets but Jarry’s serving in the third and fourth was untouchable. All Norrie could do was force two tiebreaks. In the first he earned a match point on his own serve but Jarry played a brilliant, net-rushing point and then landed a flurry of blows to take it 9-7.
A delighted Norrie tossed away his racquet after overcoming Chilean Jarry in a five-set epic
World No 143 Jarry won 180 points in total — just 14 fewer than Norrie — and he hit 46 aces
Norrie had a 4-2 lead in the fourth set tiebreak but lost five of the next six points. As in the previous breaker he had not done a huge amount wrong; Jarry was just redlining.
At the start of the second set Norrie struck at last, his break for 2-0 ending a run of 38 consecutive holds of serve between them. There was a double fault in there but also a brilliant rally with Norrie peppering Jarry at the net until he finally snuck one past him.
To win the match, Jarry would have to do something he had not done in the entire match: break the Norrie serve. He had three chances to do so in the next game but Norrie nailed a first serve each time. It felt like this was the match right here; that if Norrie could hold he was home. After 10 minutes in this game alone, hold he did and home he was.
There was an element of controversy in this match, with Jarry objecting to Norrie’s habit of spending an age bouncing the ball between his first and second serve, especially on big points.
‘Is there a rule? Do you have to intervene or do I have to suck it up?’ Jarry said to umpire Eva Asderaki after the second set. ‘He can stop doing it. It’s not a nervous tick, it is something he can control.’ Asderaki seemed to say that if she feels Norrie is doing it deliberately to disturb his opponent, she can intervene. Jarry replied: ‘It affects me, so if the rule says you have to do something if it affects me, then do it.’
The big man had a point. The introduction of the serve clock has done much to eradicate slow play but there is currently no rule as to how long players can take between serves – and there ought to be.
Norrie won all 28 of his service games against Jarry, saving eight break points in the process
Jarry was unhappy at apparent slow play by Norrie and complained during and after the match
So, some sympathy for Jarry. As much sympathy as you can have for a man who served an 11-month doping ban in 2020 after recklessly acquiring contaminated supplements.
In reaching this stage he equalled the achievement of his grandfather Jaime Filliol, who made the last 16 here in 1974.
When he snatched the third set he would have fancied his chances of setting a new family record here, but Norrie had other ideas and it is 2022 all over again.
Can he rise above the common people and make the semis once again? Definitely maybe.
