Who is Cameron Norrie, Britain’s handsome No 1 tennis star? The leftie who lost to Novak Djokovic was born in South Africa, has an American girlfriend and has earned over US$6.3 million in prize money
- Norrie, 26, is dating Louise Jacobi, founder and creative director of textile company Please Don’t Touch in New York and co-founder of design firm Studio Virgo in California
- His Scottish dad and Welsh mum are both sporty microbiologists who moved from South Africa to New Zealand, but after university in the US, he opted to play for Britain
What else is there to know about Norrie, his life before becoming a fan favourite, and what he likes to do off-court?
His background is very diverse
Norrie grew up in various places around the world. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1995, but three years later, the family decided to move to New Zealand after a neighbour was held at gunpoint by a burglar.
Per the Evening Standard, his dad David is Scottish and a former British university No 1 squash player, while his mother Helen is Welsh and a long-distance track runner. Both parents are biochemists. Norrie was introduced to tennis by his mother, who made him a tennis racket from a sawn-off squash racket so he could play in their driveway.
Norrie eventually moved to the US for university. Per Stuff NZ, in 2013, he switched from playing for New Zealand to playing for Britain because there was more funding.
He had a life-changing accident while in university
At one point, Norrie found himself feeling “burnt out” playing tennis, per the Evening Standard. This led him to enrol at Texas Christian University (TCU) and study sociology on a scholarship, so that tennis wouldn’t be his only focus.