Cam Norrie, Linear Backhand & Big Spinning Forehand

[jimlosaltos]

I'm interested to hear what the stroke mavens on TPN think of Cam Norries's groundies, featured in this month's Tour Portrait. Please check it out! All images mine (c)jfawcette taken at BNP Paribas Open, aka Indian Wells.
https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...te/cam_norrie/

Also, see John's video and discussion on the forehand atop the forum here:

https://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/forum/tennisplayer/99909-interactive-forum-march-2023-cam-norrie-forehand#post99939

The top Brit, Norrie's a 2022 Wimbledon semifinalist losing in 4 to eventual winner Djokovic, he's up to 4 in the "race' standings, has 5 titles, including a Masters 1000 at Indian Wells when these photos were taken. Cam is fresh off his second win over Carlos Alcaraz, that in the Rio finals on clay, and also has wins over Rafa, Nick Kyrgios, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Holger Rune, and Taylor Frtiz. Known as a "lung buster", he combines a wall-like linear backhand with heavy, lefty topspin on his forehand, and a shot tolerance that will grind an opponent's soul <g>. Stotty calls him "Rafa lite" (respectfully) but he's a tad more willing to venture forward, even S&V on occasion!


Here's that linear backhand taken back at ball level, while we see his forehand in the next image ...

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[jimlosaltos]

The forehand is heavy and lefty, often threatening to drag people off into the side seats, while ...

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[jimlosaltos]

Just for fun, I love this image. Cam here looks like a naughty leprechaun running off with the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

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[jimlosaltos]

By the way, Cam's background is a bit unconventional so I thought I'd share this from wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Norrie

Norrie was born in 1995 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to British microbiologist parents: his father David is from Glasgow and his mother Helen is from Cardiff.[3][4] In 1998, when Norrie was three, he and his family moved to Auckland, New Zealand, after being victims of a burglary in South Africa. Norrie said: "I don't remember too much about it, but my mum told me it got a little bit too dangerous so we moved to New Zealand."[5] His parents still live in New Zealand.[6] In 2011, at age 16, he moved to his parents' native United Kingdom, where he lived in London for three years before attending Texas Christian University in Fort Worth from 2014 to 2017. In June 2017, he ended his studies at TCU to turn professional during the grass court season of the 2017 ATP Tour.[7][8]


...

Norrie represented New Zealand as a junior, becoming No. 10 in the world, but received only a few thousand dollars from Tennis NZ, so his parents had to finance his overseas travel.[12] At fifteen, he toured Europe for five months.

In April 2013, Norrie switched his allegiance at 17 to Great Britain, the nationality of both his parents,[13] partly due to available funding,[14] spending three years in London by himself. He lived and trained at the National Tennis Centre,[15] later residing with a host family for two years while he continued his training. In 2013, he competed in all the Junior Grand Slams; the Australian Open for New Zealand, then for Great Britain at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open, but only won one match, in Australia.

Norrie had difficulty on the European tennis circuit, so he considered training at an American university


{Then at TCU } In the 2016–17 season, Norrie was the only player to win every Big 12 match he participated in, with a 10–0 record in singles and doubles.[16] In spite of being seeded No 1, Norrie missed the end of season NCAA Championships and put a hold on his studies, so that he could turn professional.[21]

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[stroke]

His backhand is certainly not pretty, it is kinda just a shovel type shot, with practically no spin. Somewhat similar to Nick's, but looks even more mechanical. But he is very consistent with it and can take the ball on early with it. I would not even call it a weakness in his game.

[jimlosaltos]

His backhand is certainly not pretty, it is kinda just a shovel type shot, with practically no spin. Somewhat similar to Nick's, but looks even more mechanical. But he is very consistent with it and can take the ball on early with it. I would not even call it a weakness in his game.

Absolutely not a weakness. It's a wall.

If one buys into the Craig O'Shannessy metaphor of "Shield & Sword", Cam has a shield dragon's breath can't penetrate.

Especially well suited for today's era of severe Western forehand grips that display great speed and spin, but tend to leak errors, Cam will gleefully rally backhand-to-forehand all day.

The "linear backhand" is becoming a real weapon between Kyrgios, Norrie, Medvedev &, I believe, Brooksby? Does 4 make a trend?

I recall Kygios' first meeting with Rafa at Wimbledon where Rafa's enormous forehand & lefty serve couldn't put a dent in the then 19 yo's backhand.

[stroke]

It is a great backhand technique for absorbing pace and taking the ball on. It seems like such a simple technique. I wonder if that kind of technique could have helped someone like Sock, who has such a weak backhand, particularly relative to his forehand. It seems to me Norrie and Nick do not feel the need or pressure to constantly run around to hit forehands. They know the are fine hitting backhands. Wall of Med also obviously, but to me, Med does not have the same very short takeback shovel technique of Cam and Nick.

[jimlosaltos]

It is a great backhand technique for absorbing pace and taking the ball on. It seems like such a simple technique. I wonder if that kind of technique could have helped someone like Sock, who has such a weak backhand, particularly relative to his forehand. It seems to me Norrie and Nick do not feel the need or pressure to constantly run around to hit forehands. They know the are fine hitting backhands. Wall of Med also obviously, but to me, Med does not have the same very short takeback shovel technique of Cam and Nick.

The perhaps unique element of Kyrgios's backhand is that from the same short backhand that he uses for a "rally ball" he can suddenly explode and blast a winner. I can't see any difference before the forward motion -- and more importantly, apparently his opponents can't either because it leaves very good players flat footed.

Tangentially, I recall at Miami Kyrgios obliterating Rublev by taking his second serve way inside the baseline and just clubbing it with that swing. I know Rublev's second has issues but that was brutal and never seen anyone else do that to him.

[stroke]

Well obviously Nick does every element of tennis better than Cam. That being said, we also know Nick will never achieve the ranking Cam is at. I could see Cam being a top 6 or 7 contender at RG, Monte Carlo, and the Italian Open.

[jimlosaltos]

Cam, the 2019 champ was it at Indian Wells has a favorable early draw there this week.

He gets a bye as 10th seed, then winner Bublik-Wu, if wins then winner of Berrettini (who's struggling) vs Daniel or Baena, and probably R32 vs Rublev, who's good and a semifinalist at prior IW, but a decent match up for Norrie (1-2 for no flag, all on hard courts).