How Cameron Norrie ended up playing tennis with Jon Bon Jovi
Sensible, dependable, pragmatic – the adjectives which attach themselves to Cameron Norrie, Britain’s leading tennis player, are hardly rock and roll.
So it was a surprise to learn this week that Norrie has been hanging out with perennially leather-clad singer and guitarist Jon Bon Jovi. Norrie even posted a video of them rallying on a green clay court, with Bon Jovi showing an unexpectedly neat touch at the net. (Click right on Instagram post to watch the video)
Why did Bon Jovi – not previously known as a Cliff Richard-style tennis nut – choose to buddy up with Norrie in particular? It turns out that Norrie’s American girlfriend Louise Jacobi knows one of the singer’s sons through a college connection.
“My girlfriend is friends with the family and we set it up,” explained Norrie, who welcomed Bon Jovi to his practice session in Miami on Wednesday, and is also hoping to see him at courtside on Saturday for an opening match against Frenchman Gregoire Barrere.
“I’m not really so much of a fan, but obviously I know a lot of his songs and I couldn't say no. We went to a local club literally five minutes from where he lives. He wasn't recognised and it was very chilled, pretty empty. He started playing like two years ago, and I hit with him for about 25 minutes,” said Norrie of Bon Jovi, who is planning to visit Wimbledon this summer. “He used to run a lot and now he just loves tennis, does it as a workout. I gave him a little bit of advice, but he already had pretty decent technique on the forehand. Then I went to his house in Palm Beach, had lunch. It was really nice, so cool, a very humble guy.”
Humble is an adjective that could equally well be applied to Norrie himself – a man who has taken the scenic route to his current position of No5 in the ATP’s “Race to Turin” (a table consisting of rankings points gained in 2023 alone). When he first arrived in England at the age of 16, Norrie was a shy teenager with a bad case of acne. He was clearly athletic, but his lefty game – with its curious bunted backhand – was not hitting the high notes in the manner of the young Andy Murray or Laura Robson. While contemporaries like Nick Kyrgios and Kyle Edmund were making a name on the tour, Norrie declined to turn pro and took a tennis scholarship to Texas Christian University. He enjoyed the nightlife and enraged his coaches by falling off his moped after a couple of beers – perhaps the most rock and roll thing he has ever done, or at least admitted to.
But the tortoise is now overtaking the hares, for Norrie has evolved into arguably the most rugged and robust competitor in the game – a man with unnaturally large lungs and a heart that can sustain 10 minutes in the so-called “red zone”. He beat the new world No1 Carlos Alcaraz in the final of Rio a month ago, then reached the quarter-finals of Indian Wells last week. A photograph from that event near Palm Springs showed him chatting away to Bill Gates, who stands at No4 in the world rankings for wealth.
So which of these celebrities raises Norrie’s famously low heart rate to a pounding tempo? It turns out that Bon Jovi had less of an impact than Murray, when they first crossed paths a decade or so ago.
“I haven't met anyone crazy,” said Norrie, in a comment which 1980s music-lovers might query. “I think when I first met Andy I was so excited to speak to him and then [Roger] Federer, too. But outside of that not so much. For me that’s a bit more normal now.”
From Norrie’s understated answers, you can tell that he dislikes fuss. While other players sack their coaches, pull up with niggles, or get into rows with umpires, he simply chugs away – a diesel truck in a world of temperamental sports cars. His 21 wins this season are the second best on tour, behind only Daniil Medvedev’s 24.
“We stay drama-free and and we all have the same goals in mind,” said Norrie of his support team, who remain blissfully unchanged. His Argentine coach, Facundo Lugones, is an old mate from TCU in Fort Worth. When Norrie arrived at the university, Lugones acknowledged that “he was just a kid that didn’t really know what he was doing”. And yet, starting out from that low base, Norrie has turned himself into the ultimate professional, now describing himself as “the CEO of Norrie Capital”.
“Facu is so driven,” said Norrie this week. “I'm lucky that he's fairly young and doesn't have a family just yet, so he's able to do as many weeks as possible. He loves tennis maybe more than me, and I don’t want to change a thing.
“The goal is to be world No1. There’s a few steps before that, obviously. Trying to finish top five at the end of this year, and making [the ATP Finals in] Turin. I'll have to go deep in a couple of slams to do that. But I'm feeling really good physically, mentally, and I'm enjoying the game. I don’t see why not.”
