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Cameron Norrie sits down with USTA Pro Circuit broadcaster Mike Cation after claiming his third ATP Challenger Tour title in Stockton

The final months of the season are often critical for players competing on the ATP Challenger Tour. Those jockeying for coveted year-end Top 100 berths hope to take advantage of signficant opportunities on the circuit.

Enter Cameron Norrie. Few players have enjoyed a hotter stretch than the 22-year-old Brit, who streaked to consecutive Challenger crowns on Sunday. Norrie capped a dominant 26-4 run since Wimbledon with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Darian King, going back-to-back at the Northern California stops of Tiburon and Stockton.

Norrie has the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings well within his sights as he climbs to No. 111. With coach Facundo Lugones guiding the rising talent, he is up 164 spots since late July.

Norrie has even drawn the attention of countryman and former World No. 4 Greg Rusedski. Competing at an ATP Champions Tour event in Monterrey, Mexico, Rusedski said, "I've been really impressed with how Cameron has played the past few weeks, winning a few Challengers. His ranking has really gone up this year and it's good news for British tennis."

After you won in Tiburon, you said how important it was to come in mentally and have the same level day in and day out. How do you feel you did?
I feel very happy with the way I competed and how I was mentally this week. It was very tough at the start of the tournament, especially against Brydan Klein. I didn't play great at all and I managed to get through the match. After that, I played the best tennis in the last two weeks. I played unbelievable against Tennys Sandgren and after going down 5-0 against Michael Mmoh too. Today I played a very clean match, so I'm happy with the way I competed. I was mentally tough this week and that's how I got through it.

Today, the conditions were brutal. There were 20 mile-per-hour winds with gusts going up to 40-45. How did you keep it clean today?
I knew that going in and I tried to use it to my advantage. I tried to play smart and compete with every point. From the start of the match, I just wanted it to be intense and play it safe through the middle. If the ball was there to be hit, just hit it. I played smart and used the drop shot when I needed to, into the wind. It was a very good play for me and I think he was a little rattled with the wind. I got the hang of it in the second set.

You stayed on top of the baseline, even with the wind in your face. There aren't many players who are willing to do that. What does that say about your skills to be able to take the ball on the rise?
In the last few years, I've been doing a drill with my coach where you play points while standing on top of the baseline. You play with one foot inside the baseline and that's helped so much. It's my favourite drill and the best for me. Today, I was very comfortable hitting with the wind and stepping in. It makes a big difference to know that guys can't leave balls short against me, because I'm going to punish them. I'm really happy with where my game is heading, but I have a lot to work on.

You mentioned the Klein match. It got pretty testy and I found myself thinking it was going to get away from you. I've seen that kind of thing happen countless times in tournaments. How did you stay focused through that one?
I wasn't playing well at all and he gave me the break back in the second set. I got broken again, but just hung in there and played very good in the tie-break. I wanted to keep it about tennis and not worry about all the little things going on. There were a lot of distractions with ball kids too, but I just wanted to keep it about tennis. He played a great first set, so all credit to him. It was a very competitive match.

You're up to No. 111 now in the [Emirates ATP Rankings]. You talked about it last week. How much pressure are you putting on yourself, in terms of what you have left for the rest of the year?
As me and my coach [Facundo Lugones] say, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself. If I'm getting better every day and working on the things I need to, I'm going to be a better tennis player. There's no goal and if I get to the Top 100 I'll be satisfied. If I need to play qualies at the Australian Open, I will. It is what it is and I'm just going to enjoy the rest of the year. I'm looking forward to a big preseason in Buenos Aires and hopefully I can keep it that way.

You have the Brits backing you of course and then you also have the Texans supporting you [as a former Texas Christian University standout]. It's nice to have that dual fanbase.
The TCU community has been great for me. I get a message from a couple of people there every day. It's nice to have a college in Fort Worth backing me. And I think I have quite a lot of fans in the U.K. now, so it's nice to have that dual base. It feels so good and I'm at home wherever I go.

We'll leave it with the oddball question of the day... Which fantasy football are you more involved in, the Texan (American football) or the U.K. (English football)?
The Texan. My squad did pretty good today. I'm happy with how they went. I'm in a league with a bunch of old TCU tennis alums. I'm pretty into it now.

Second straight trophy. You went into San Francisco to celebrate last week. How do you do it now?
Well, I need to get to Fairfield. I'm still deciding whether I'm going to play or not. My shoulder is giving me some problems. So we'll see what happens there. I think we're going to head back to Tiburon actually and stay with our housing family tonight.

Top seed Thiem, Garcia-Lopez to resume on Friday

Cameron Norrie showed few signs of nerves on Thursday at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon when he recorded the first Top 10 win of his career.

The Briton, who will break into the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings on Monday, saved all four break points he faced to defeat World No. 10 John Isner, the second seed this week, 7-6(1), 6-4 in 85 minutes.

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Isner, who lost his serve once in the first game of the second set, struck 10 aces. The 33-year-old American captured his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown at the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. A. Zverev) on 1 April.

Norrie, 22, will next play France's Gilles Simon in his first ATP World Tour semi-final. Simon required two hours and 37 minutes to beat Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).

Dominic Thiem's quarter-final against Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez was suspended because of darkness tied one-set all. Garcia-Lopez took the first set 7-6(4), but Thiem ran away with the second-set tie-break, 7-6(0). Thiem is playing in his fifth quarter-final of the season (Rio de Janeiro, Acapulco, Monte-Carlo and Barcelona).

The winner of Thiem vs. Garcia-Lopez will meet Serbian Dusan Lajovic, who hit seven aces and won 80 per cent of his second-serve points (12/15) during a 7-5, 6-1 victory against #NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz.

Did You Know?
Cameron Norrie, the British No. 3, had not played a clay-court match until February 2018.

Norrie has won their past three meetings
The ASB Classic could have a homegrown champion. Cameron Norrie, who grew up in Auckland but now represents Great Britain, reached his first ATP Tour final on Friday, beating German Jan-Lennard Struff 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

Norrie is hardly known for his serve but it has carried him all week in New Zealand. He was broken for the first time all tournament to start the second set, but he regrouped, and behind 17 aces, beat Struff to claim their first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting.

Norrie saved eight of 10 break points, and it looked like he'd have to stave off a few more as he served for the match. The 23-year-old pitched in two double faults to start the ninth game game, but won the next four points to advance.

“I was really, really nervous in that last game... slightly tight, but a big thanks to the crowd for getting me through that,” Norrie said. “It's so special... It's my first final and to do it at home, too, it means so much to me.”

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The Brit will face American Tennys Sandgren, who will be playing in his second ATP Tour final. The right-hander put on a serving clinic against German Philipp Kohlschreiber, winning 94 per cent (31/33) of his first-serve points and saving all three break points to advance 6-4, 6-2.

“I've had some good serving days in the last two years or so, where I've really served well with my first serve and had some really clean days. In the semis of a 250? No, obviously not. To feel like I performed really well on a big match for myself, it's a good feeling, obviously,” Sandgren said.

“I trained really hard in November and December and put in a lot of good work, trying to mentally be as solid and sound as I can be, which is a problem for me sometimes. I get down on myself when things start to go wrong, get negative and beat myself up... So I've been working hard on that, and I feel like physically I'm the healthiest as I've been in over a year now.”

The 27-year-old American, who reached the Australian Open quarter-finals last year, fell in his maiden final in April at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston (l. to Johnson).

Norrie and Sandgren have never played a tour-level match against each other, but the Brit has won their past three meetings, all of which took place in 2017 on the ATP Challenger Tour.

“That wasn't a lot of fun. He wasn't my favourite guy,” Sandgren said.

Norrie might be the crowd favourite on Saturday, but Sandgren will have plenty of support back home. Despite the 19-hour time difference between Tennessee and Auckland, his family and friends have been hosting watch parties.

“My friend has a projector screen in his basement, so they'll put the Tennis Channel on the projector screen, and they get behind me,” Sandgren said.