By Jake Davies
- Fabio Fognini [2] defeats Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-2
LOS CABOS, MEXICO – Cameron Norrie‘s great run in Los Cabos came to an end as he lost in the semi-final to the No.2 seed Fabio Fognini.
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Fabio Fognini [2] def. Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-2
After reaching a second semi-final in as many weeks, Cameron Norrie could not quite stay with the experience of the No. 2 seed Fabio Fognini.
Many wondered whether the British No.2 Norrie was going to be able to live with the Italian in the baseline exchanges, and from the beginning, Norrie was doing a good job of it, working his left-handed forehand to perfection and believing in his game, but Fognini really elevated his level in the 3rd game, where he broke for the first time with a sequence of beautiful defensive points, which unsettled Norrie from the baseline.
Norrie, who was looking to make it into a first ever tour-level final, did momentarily get the break back at 3-3 as Fognini’s mental application did wander, but each and every time that Fognini stepped his foot on the accelerator, it was hard to see Norrie finding a way back into the match. Fognini needed just the one more break to seal the set and then raced away to victory with a rather one-sided second set, dropping just the two games in that set.
It was a disappointing way for the week to end for the Brit. Going into the match he had looked rather unstoppable on his own service games and his forehand was winning him big tennis matches, but the serve and the forehand were too shots in this particular encounter that let him down. Fognini really looked unmoved in a lot of the rallies, while Norrie was forcing his forehand side a bit too much and committed too many unforced errors off that side because of it.
At the beginning of the hard-court swing it was discussed how Norrie needed to make a good start to this part of the season in order to give himself the best shot at potentially breaking the Top-50 and continuing to rise up the rankings and the British No.2 has done just that and will break the Top-70 because of the progress he has made in the last two weeks. Norrie will want to get the monkey off his back and reach a first tour-level final (now 0-3 in that regard), but Norrie will recognise the effort he has put in and the unlikely wins he has achieved, particularly this week in Los Cabos.
Norrie is next scheduled to play qualifying in Cincinnati.
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