Cameron Norrie gets Wimbledon backing from Jon Bon Jovi

Cameron Norrie has revealed he will have the backing of Jon Bon Jovi at Wimbledon. The British No 1 faces Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the third round of the French Open in Paris on Friday with the winner set to face Carlos Alcaraz. But looking ahead to the next Grand Slam, the world No 13 said he will have the support of the rock legend at SW19.

At the Miami Open in March, Norrie first spoke about his friendship with the legendary musician which came about through Norrie’s American girlfriend Louise Jacob. Norrie and tennis addict Bon Jovi hit together in Florida and then had lunch.

“It was so cool to play with him,” said last year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist. “He is really liking tennis more and more, and I think he’s going to make an appearance at Wimbledon and come watch. Maybe in my box. We’ll see. So it’s cool to see him enjoying it. To meet him and to hang out with him was great.

“I’m not really the biggest of his fans. I obviously respect his music and I know a lot of his songs. It is cool to see him getting involved in tennis and liking it. He’s playing almost every day, so it’s good to see.”

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“I’ll hopefully see him hitting some balls over Wimbledon time. I’m sure he’ll be enjoying Wimbledon. I think he has a couple of shows planned in British summertime as well. It’s cool to see him liking tennis.”

Norrie is scheduled to meet No 1 seed Carlos Alcaraz in the fourth round but he insisted: “I am just going to focus on the next match.”

That will be against No 17 seed Musetti who beat Novak Djokovic on the clay in Monte Carlo in April before seeing off Norrie in three sets in their only previous meeting in Barcelona. “I was playing at such a high level with him when I was playing him, and I lost a bit of concentration and a bit of focus, and my level dropped a lot, but I was able to figure out ways to win points,” Norrie recalled.

“I think I have a pretty decent game to play him, but I’m going to have to play really, really well. His best surface is clay, and he’s had a lot of really tough matches.

“He took Djokovic to five here, so he can play well. He still has to win his match obviously. But, yeah, I think it’s a really tough draw and really going to have to play my best with him to have a chance. He beat me in the last one, so good guy, good third round. Yeah, I’m expecting a tough match.”

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