Cameron Norrie’s Indian Wells hopes given big boost as two stars crash out

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British tennis star Cameron Norrie has been handed a boost in his bid to win an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time in his career after the two highest-ranked players left in the draw suffered shock defeats. Norrie has reached his maiden ATP 1000 semi-final at the Indian Wells Masters, and against all odds is now the highest-ranked player still in the competition.

The Briton is already at a career-high ranking of 26th in the world, and is enjoying the best season of his career so far.

He won his first ATP singles title at a 250 event in Los Cabos in July, and came into this tournament – the biggest non-Grand Slam event on the tennis calendar aside from the Tour Finals – as the 21st seed.

Norrie has surpassed all expectations by beating the likes of Roberto Bautista Agut, Tommy Paul and Diego Schwartzman to reach the last four.

The 26-year-old’s achievements in California will see him pass Dan Evans as the British number one on Monday, and he will hope to continue his fine form and lift the trophy this weekend.

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His chances of doing exactly that have been handed a surprise boost, after favourites Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev were knocked out in the quarter-finals.

The Olympic champion Zverev was bested by American Taylor Fritz, while Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia recovered from a shaky second set to dump world number three Tsitsipas out of the competition.

The other player in the last four is Grigor Dimitrov, the former world number three who is currently ranked No.28 in the world and who will be Norrie’s semi-final opponent.

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Dimitrov is the only one of the final four who has ever reached this stage of such a prestigious tournament, while it is the first time ever that the semi-final of an ATP Masters 1000 has featured four players who are all outside the top 25 in the world rankings.

An unlikely tournament win at Indian Wells would see Norrie only 125 points behind Hubert Hurkacz in the Race to Turin and a shock appearance at the ATP Finals.

He admitted after his quarter-final victory over Schwartzmann that it had been “the biggest match of my career”, and that reaching the British number one spot was “never really a goal of mine”.

But he added: “It’s been a lot of fun this year and I am feeling good and ready to keep pushing for more.

“I just want to keep the momentum every week, keep enjoying my tennis, keep enjoying playing at this level. It’s nice to show this level at these events and the Slams.”

Norrie faces Dimitrov in the semi-final at the Indian Wells Masters, with the match set to begin at 9.30pm UK time.

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