Indian Wells: Winner of Diego Schwartzman (6-0, 6-2), Cameron Norrie will play his 1st Masters 1000 semi-final

We weren’t expecting him at such a party. And yet Cameron Norrie has undeniably crossed a major milestone in this 2021 season. Already four times finalist this year, and in particular in San Diego recently where he had beaten Andrey Rublev among others, the Briton swept Diego Schwartzman (6-0, 6- 2) in 1:07 of play in the quarterfinals at Indian Wells on Thursday. Already a novice at this stage of the competition, he will therefore play his first semi-final in Masters 1000 against Grigor Dimitrov or Hubert Hurkacz. He is also guaranteed to enter the Top 20 for the first time in his career next Monday.

Between two blockers from the baseline comfortable when the rally is long, this quarter-final was shaping up to be a great battle. This was not the case Thursday on the court, so much Cameron Norrie impressed, completely foiling his opponent Diego Schwartzman. It’s simple: the 15th Argentine player in the world was completely deprived of solutions from the first point of the match, unable to outflank his rival.

“Peque” only gave the illusion of a reaction at the start of the second when he broke (6-0, 2-2). It was actually swan song, since the last four games then slipped under his nose. The statistics are terrible for the Argentinian: with 30 unforced errors for 10 winning shots and only 16% of points gained behind his second ball, he lived through a real ordeal.