‘He was too good': Norrie upbeat despite Wimbledon exit at hands of Alcaraz
'Amazing, amazing experience,' said Norrie. 'He played a very high level. I think if you asked him, he would agree with that. It was good fun. Those are the kind of matches that you want to think about and you want to play. You do all the hard work, you do extra stuff with your coach, you do extra fitness, and you do all these things to get ready for matches like this. I wanted to just go out there, no excuses, just play. I did that. He was too good today. I fought till the last point, so I can be proud.'
Alcaraz, the second seed, is attempting to become the fifth man in the Open era to win three consecutive Wimbledon titles. The 22 year-old has been in some of the best form of his life recently, winning the French Open last month and establishing a 23-match winning streak. Alongside his usual excellence with his groundstrokes and variety of shots, Alcaraz served brilliantly against Norrie, losing just six points on his first serve in the entire match.
'On grass when you're serving great or you feel you're serving great, then playing from the baseline or playing the return games, you just have more confidence and play calmly and think clearly,' said Alcaraz. 'So I think feeling great in the serve, it gave me a lot of calm to play great tennis from the baseline. '
Norrie, a former British No 1 who rose as high as eighth in the ATP rankings in 2022, has been on the comeback trail after a difficult period on the court due to poor form and injury. He fell as low as No 91 in May but he will return to the top 50 on Monday at No 43.
'I really feel like I'm enjoying my tennis a lot,' said Norrie. 'I think that's most important. Obviously I didn't play at all from this period onwards last year. I can just keep pushing kind of for my ranking. My level is there.'
Alcaraz will face Taylor Fritz, the fifth seed, in the semi-finals after the American defeated Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4).
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