Britain's Cameron Norrie celebrates winning the men's singles quarterfinal match against Belgium's David Goffin at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London. Photo / AP
Britain's Cameron Norrie celebrates winning the men's singles quarterfinal match against Belgium's David Goffin at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London. Photo / AP
Wimbledon semifinalist Cameron Norrie may well be the headline act for January's ASB men's Classic.
The 26-year-old Brit, who was born in Johannesburg and raised in Auckland, is understood to have committed to play in his hometown this summer.
Norrie's parents David and Helen live in Bucklands Beach while hisgirlfriend Louise Jacobi, the founder of interior design company Please Don't Touch, is a Kiwi.
As much as he represents Britain and is proud to do so, Norrie has always felt a special affinity to New Zealand.
The ASB Classic is returning to the ATP and WTA calendar this summer for the first time since 2020 and Norrie's return would certainly be a boost. Most of the world's top 10 ranked players typically don't play the week before the Australian Open. Norrie is likely to play for Britain in the ATP Cup the week prior to Auckland.
His rise up the rankings has been impressive since the start of last year. He ended 2018 ranked 90. He made the final in the 2019 ASB Classic, losing to Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff and improved to 41 that year before ending the season ranked 53.
Britain's Cameron Norrie celebrates winning the men's singles quarterfinal match against Belgium's David Goffin at the Wimbledon tennis championships. Photo / AP
Norrie lost in the first round of the 2020 ASB Classic and endured a frustrating year when the pandemic interrupted the season. He started 2021 ranked 71 and ended it in 12th, a ranking he has maintained after briefly reaching a career high of 10 earlier in the year.
Norrie won the ATP Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells in 2021, the biggest title of his career to date. He has won four ATP titles including two this year in Lyon on clay and Delray Beach on hard courts.
New ASB Classic tournament director Nicolas Lamperin would love to secure the services of the popular Brit who still speaks with a strong New Zealand accent.
He spent more than a decade of his childhood in Auckland, was a student at MacLeans College and represented New Zealand at junior level reaching a ranking of No 10 in the world.
Why he left is well documented. His parents were frustrated by the lack of funding and support for Norrie from the national body at the time. He had a British passport via his Scottish dad and Welsh mum, and switched allegiances to Britain in 2013 having played qualifying under the New Zealand flag at the ASB Classic that year.
The rest is history with the resources of the LTA behind him. The left-hander continued to develop and went to college at Texas Christian University where he met his coach Argentine Facundo Lugones. He turned pro in 2017.
Norrie will face three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic for a place in the Wimbledon final on Friday night. It will be the biggest match of his career.
The world No 12, who ordinarily would have surged into the top 10 on the back of his Wimbledon run, won't improve his ranking due to the ATP and WTA not awarding ranking points at the Grand Slam this year in protest over the ban on Russian and Belarussian players competing.
But it seems only a matter of time before the former Kiwi is entrenched in the top 10 and another step closer to his stated goal of becoming world No 1.
When Norrie reached the ASB Classic final in 2019, he was unseeded. He may well return as the top seed this summer, another reminder of what a massive shame it is that New Zealand let him go.
