Cameron Norrie hailed Emma Raducanu as the “inspiration” behind him winning the biggest title of his career in Indian Wells. The new world No 16 overcame multiple top 10 players to win the Masters 1000 event often dubbed the ‘fifth Grand Slam’ last week. It comes weeks after Raducanu became the first qualifier in history to win a Major title at the US Open.
Norrie has been having the best season of his career, and recently made it even better by winning the biggest title of his career in Indian Wells.
It was the 26-year-old’s sixth final and second title this year, after he won the ATP 250 in Los Cabos in July, but the prestigious ‘fifth Grand Slam’ worth 1000 points eclipsed his previous achievements.
After his incredible run to the title, which saw him beat 15th seed Bautista Agut, 11th seed Diego Schwartzman and former world No 3 Grigor Dimitrov, Norrie is now up to a career-high ranking of world No 16.
His dominant win over Schwartzman also allowed the 26-year-old to overtake Dan Evans and become the British No 1 for the first time in his career.
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“What Emma did was absolutely phenomenal and pretty unbelievable for me,” the newly-crowned Indian Wells champion told the LTA.
“I mean to come through qualies and to go out and chop everyone that she played and to do it right through the tournament and still look physically fresh and she was moving amazing even in the final, it’s just impressive to me.”
The new British No 1 also said Raducanu’s run was “definitely a big inspiration for myself and especially for a lot of the other British players”.
He added: “Definitely going to put a lot of rackets in hands for the next generation of younger boys and girls to pick up rackets.
