Cam Norrie feeds off riotous No 1 Court he calls home to sweep past Mattia Bellucci in straight sets to roar into Wimbledon fourth round

Cam Norrie shook the hand of his vanquished foe and then stabbed his index finger, like an exclamation point to the victory, down towards the surface of No1 Court.

‘I love that court, I feel very safe on that court,’ said the 29-year-old after beating Italian world No73 Mattia Bellucci 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the fourth round – his eighth win out of nine career visits to the All England Club’s studio theatre.

‘My favourite part is the atmosphere and the energy. I like being very close to your team. They’re right there in the corner and you can pull energy from them.

‘There’s the tendency for the crowd to be a bit more respectful on Centre Court. On No1 Court, Friday afternoon, people had a few drinks, I could feel them getting behind me.

‘There were a few difficult moments for me when the crowd got really fired up.’

So let’s hope Tim Henman and the rest of Wimbledon’s scheduling committee do the right thing and keep Norrie in situ for his last-16 clash with Chilean qualifier Nicolas Jarry. It is not a match that screams Centre Court, so the British No3 could get his wish.

The British No3 was victorious for the eighth time in his nine outings on the No1 Court in SW19

Norrie’s last-16 clash with Chilean qualifier Nicolas Jarry may well be held on the No1 Court

That Wimbledon’s secondary court is Norrie’s spiritual home feels appropriate for a man who has played much of his career as second fiddle, first to Andy Murray and more recently Jack Draper.

He did have three years as national No1, from 2021 to 2024, and how badly British tennis needed him then. He saw us through the doldrums of Murray’s decline then began to fade as Draper rose and in our excitement about a new star we did not mourn him.

He was like the steady boyfriend who helped British tennis through the rocky years of a messy divorce, but now we have a new fancy man Cam was welcome to step aside, Cam. Not so fast. The man with the demeanour and silver-streaked hair of a garden badger is not road-kill just yet.

Norrie’s ranking nadir came a week before the French Open, when he fell to 91 in the world. A bad month or so and he would have dropped out of the top 100 for the first time since 2017 and Dan Evans will attest to how difficult it is to claw one’s way back once the Grand Slam invites dry up.

But from the mouth of a precipice Norrie reached the semi-finals in Geneva and the fourth round at Roland Garros, and having backed that up here he will return to well inside the top 50.

An arm injury was partially to blame for Norrie’s struggles last year but also the growing pains of trying to add more attacking options to his stock game of rugged, indefatigable defence.

‘I knew I was playing well,’ said Norrie. ‘But I was wanting it to happen right now, rather than being patient and earning the results. Once I relaxed and enjoyed my tennis a little bit more, it all came quite easily.’

Norrie was clearly loving it out there against Bellucci. At 5-5 in the first-set tiebreak he defended deep in the forehand corner then traversed the baseline to send a piercing backhand pass down the line. That was vintage Norrie counterpunching but he also showed some of those more offensive skills, winning 15 out of 20 points at the net.

The 29-year-old said he could feel the crowd ‘getting behind’ him as he was roared to victory

Next up tomorrow/on Sunday is Nicolas Jarry, another who is having to claw his way back – in the Chilean’s case his ranking has not recovered from an 11-month doping ban in 2020 for contaminated supplements.

A match against the world No143 for a place in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon – a wonderful opportunity for Norrie but he has earned it, both with the upset of No12 seed Frances Tiafoe in the second round and those 18 months of toil.

Norrie’s last run here came in 2022, when he lost to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, and he is getting a pleasant sense of deja vu. ‘The weather was unbelievable that year, so sunny,’ he recalled. ‘I was playing on No1 Court as well. It was so much fun. It feels a little bit like that right now.’