Cameron Norrie is a left-handed baseliner whose grass game rests on consistency, heavy forehand spin and a flat, compact backhand rather than first-strike power. A disrupted 2026 swing brought only two singles matches and two defeats, and he slipped from 17th to 23rd in the men’s GTC Grass Rankings with a GTC Grass Rating of 101.
Grass at a glance
- GTC Grass Rating: 101, 23rd in the men’s rankings (17th before the season)
- Pillars: Lawn Form 44, Arsenal 54, Wimbledon 56, Nerve 56
- Nationality: Great Britain
- Best Wimbledon result: Semi-final (2022)
- Grass titles: None yet (runner-up at Queen’s 2021)
- Plays: Left-handed, two-handed backhand
How Cameron plays on grass
Norrie wins on grass by making opponents play one more ball. The left-handed serve is accurate rather than fast, and he relies on placement to the backhand side to start points on his terms. His forehand carries heavy topspin, which is a strength on hard courts but sits up more invitingly on grass, so he often has to flatten it to keep opponents from attacking. The short, flat backhand is better suited to the surface and is his steadiest shot in cross-court exchanges.
His Arsenal score of 54 reflects the main limit: he does not win many free points, and against big servers he spends long stretches defending. His fitness and movement compensate, and he chooses well when to come forward. The Nerve score of 56 is close to his other pillars and fits a player who often ends up in long, tight matches and wins his share of them.
Grass record
Norrie’s first significant grass result was a quarter-final at Eastbourne in 2018. In 2021 he reached the Queen’s final, losing to Matteo Berrettini, and a year later he made the Wimbledon semi-final, winning the first set against Novak Djokovic before losing in four. That remains his best Wimbledon run.
He reached the Queen’s quarter-final in 2023 and returned to the Wimbledon last eight in 2025, beating Roberto Bautista Agut, 12th seed Frances Tiafoe, Mattia Bellucci and Nicolás Jarry before Carlos Alcaraz beat him in straight sets. He has not won a grass title.
The 2026 grass season
Norrie had committed to ‘s-Hertogenbosch for the first time in his career and was projected as the 4th seed, but he withdrew before the event and Zhang Zhizhen took his place in the draw. His rating held at 104. He returned at Queen’s, where 4th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat him 7-6(6), 6-2 in the first round, and the rating eased to 103.
At Wimbledon, seeded 26th, he drew American qualifier Michael Zheng and lost a first-round match of about four hours. Norrie won the first and third sets, and the fifth set went to a deciding tie-break that Zheng won 10-4. With no grass wins to count, his rating fell to 101.
Looking ahead to 2027
Norrie needs a full and healthy grass schedule in 2027, most likely Queen’s and one other warm-up event before Wimbledon, to rebuild his Lawn Form score of 44, which is the weakest of his pillars after a season of so few matches. Technically, the priority is the first serve, since more cheap points would ease the pressure on a game that relies on long rallies. His quarter-final in 2025 shows he can still reach the second week at Wimbledon, and that is the realistic target, along with a return to the top 20 of the GTC list.
