Norrie's surge overcomes Jacquet's fire in Metz
Under the lights of a roaring French arena, Cameron Norrie battles back from the brink against Kyrian Jacquet, clinching a hard-fought semifinal berth at the Moselle Open with unyielding resolve.
In the charged atmosphere of the Metz Arena, where echoes of home support reverberate off the walls, Cameron Norrie navigated a gritty challenge on Thursday at the Moselle Open. The 30-year-old left-hander, a finalist here last year, dropped the opening set 4-6 to local hopeful Kyrian Jacquet, the lucky loser who stormed in with qualifier's hunger. Yet Norrie, as the lone remaining seed in this ATP 250 event, steadied his indoor hard-court game, forcing a decider through tactical adjustments and mental steel over two hours and 25 minutes.
Underspin disrupts, resolve builds
Jacquet unleashed 48 winners—24 carved from his forehand—to seize early control, his underspin slices dipping low on the quick surface and pulling Norrie off balance. The Frenchman's serve held firm, mixing aggression with those low-bouncing shots to disrupt the Briton's preferred one–two patterns of crosscourt forehands into inside-out backhands. As the crowd fueled every rally, Norrie absorbed the barrage, his 28 winners reflecting a shift toward deeper returns that neutralized the dips and invited errors from the baseline.
In the second set, Jacquet's variety nearly closed the door, his sudden bursts of power testing the lefty's footwork on the true-bounce court. Norrie countered by varying his own depths, threading down-the-line backhands to extend points and expose fatigue. The tiebreak became a psychological fulcrum, where six straight points from the seed leveled the match at one set apiece, transforming survival into subtle dominance.
“He surprised me a lot,” Norrie said of Jacquet, the third Frenchman he has beaten this week. “He was mixing it up really well. A lot of slicing, then really aggressive at moments. His serve is really, really good. The French have so many good players, so many different kinds of players. I really liked the way he competed and he could have easily won the match in the second set as well, but I managed to stay tough.”
Final points ignite comeback fire
Carrying tiebreak momentum into the third, Norrie pinned Jacquet back with consistent crosscourt exchanges, his flat groundstrokes gaining extra bite indoors without outdoor variables. The Frenchman's forehand firepower, so lethal early, began to falter under prolonged rallies, allowing the Briton to construct inside-in approaches that forced defensive lobs. As the only seed standing amid upsets, Norrie channeled season-long pressures—sparse deep runs offset by this second semifinal—into a decisive break at 4-4.
The climax unfolded in a blur: Norrie reeled off the final 11 points, his backhand slices disrupting rhythm before unleashing down-the-line winners that hushed the partisan roars. This surge wasn't raw power but honed endurance, adapting to Jacquet's serve and slices while imposing his own tempo. The 6-4 decider capped a 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 triumph, propelling him toward a potential rankings climb before the year ends.
Semifinal path eyes title revival
Now in the last four, Norrie awaits either Lorenzo Sonego or Daniel Altmaier, a clash demanding further tweaks against topspin heaviness or counterpunching guile on these courts. His last title came in 2023 at Rio de Janeiro, where he outdueled Carlos Alcaraz in the final, a feat underscoring his knack for peaking against top talent. In Metz's intimate intensity, this run signals a late-season resurgence, blending adaptability with the quiet confidence to chase a sixth tour crown.
