Top News

Carlos Alcaraz is once again facing the "nightmare" of Cameron Norrie in his path at Indian Wells. The pair will clash in their ninth professional meeting for a place in the final four, with the Spaniard currently leading the head-to-head record 5-3.

It was Norrie, however, who struck the most recent blow at the Paris Masters in October, prior to which they had met in the quarters of Wimbledon in 2025. In the build-up to that contest, Alcaraz spoke of his struggles when facing the Brit.

"Facing Cam is always really, really difficult," he insisted. "We have really difficult battles already. For me facing him is almost a nightmare, to be honest.

"Really tough from the baseline. I'm not surprised he's in the quarter-final playing great tennis because I've seen him practising. When he lost at Queen's, he stayed for five days practising morning, afternoon, and night.

"I saw him. So I'm not surprised at all seeing his level. So it's going to be really different. He's playing at home, as well, so he's going to use the crowd on his side. I have to be really strong mentally and focused to play good tennis if I want to beat him."

• Tennis trio were banned for 37 years in total as new match-fixing scandal grips the sport

• World’s richest tennis star sees inheritance skyrocket to incredible new heights

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! All the best sports news and much more on our dedicated Facebook page

Alcaraz didn't end up encountering too many issues in his straight-sets victory, bringing an end to what had been a contentious run at the All England Club for Norrie. In his previous victory over Nicolas Jarry, he was accused of making the most of a loophole in the rule book.

Jarry voiced his concerns to the umpire about his opponent's delay between serves. Pat Cash commented on the BBC: "I don't know if he (Norrie) was trying to get some rest but the excessive ball bouncing was, well, excessive.

"I've never seen that before so maybe it was just the state he was in during the match. After the first serve you can sort of take as much time as you like, it's a sort of silly anomaly of the rule.

"You have to serve by a certain time on the shot clock, but as long as you get to the line and throw the ball in the air, you can take as much time as you like after that, which is ridiculous. Cam sort of milked that a bit. Maybe he was tired."

That wasn't the only aspect of his behaviour that was questioned. During his loss to Alcaraz, Norrie was heard shouting out "vamos" - the Spanish phrase meaning "let's go" - possibly as another psychological tactic.

John McEnroe remarked during commentary: "Was that Norrie saying 'vamos'? It's weird for a guy that was born in South Africa, grew up in New Zealand and is a Brit, that he's saying vamos."

Norrie downplayed both incidents and explained that the shouts of "vamos" were directed at his coach, Facundo Lugones, who hails from Argentina and he'd been saying it to throughout the tournament.