Sometimes a tennis player simply gets in the zone, and that happened to Cam Norrie in the third round of the Canadian Open against Alex de Minaur. The latter was higher ranked and had a clear path to the title in Montreal. Norrie had other plans.
The Brit beat the Aussie through a series of precision serving and brilliant groundstrokes, and was helped by a bunch of uncharacteristic unforced errors by his friend outside of tennis, de Minaur.
What was especially troublesome for the Australian was his inability to handle Norrie's top-heavy forehand. Norrie kept pushing the fast de Minaur side to side, but the Australian could only answer in a defensive posture many times.
Alex de Minaur got brutally honest in his Canadian Open loss to Cam Norrie
De Minaur's coach attempted to offer guidance during the ultimately futile second and third sets, but his words were meaningless. So much so that de Minaur angrily suggested to his coach, Adolfo Gutierrez: "Then you should f****** come on court and try it."
While the Australian does shout out "Come on!" several times during a match, he isn't one of the more volatile players on the ATP Tour. That he shouted to his coach so vehemently during a match only shows further proof of just how frustrated de Minaur was in the 7-5, 6-7(5), 1-6 loss.
What made the scenario all the more frustrating was that the Australian either knew or learned after the match about other top players who had been defeated in Montreal. Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, and Jannik Sinner didn't participate at all. Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz, Flavio Cobolli, and Daniil Medvedev had lost.
Also, Felix Auger-Aliassime had to withdraw due to a new injury. De Minaur was the highest-ranked player left, and he had a real chance to win his first Canadian Masters. Potentially, the only player standing in his way was defending champion Ben Shelton.
De Minaur is a fantastically athletically gifted player, but he has a ceiling. His immense speed doesn't make up for a relative lack of power deep in important tournaments. He has never won a major or Masters 1000, for instance. Losing to Cam Norrie, a skilled player who also has a low ceiling, likely made the Canadian Open loss even more frustrating.
Not that Alex de Minaur will quit. One of his greatest strengths is his willingness to keep battling in matches even when he appears defeated. This has allowed him to come back quite a bit. The irony was that it was Norrie who came back to beat him in Montreal. One thing is for sure, however: de Minaur's coach wouldn't have done any better, even though his client made the offer.
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