With the Nitto ATP Finals due to start on Sunday, the last two tour events in Metz and Belgrade are reaching the last two rounds before the curtain comes down on this years professional tour with the Turin finale.

He’s a good player and had a really good year so it’s a really great win for me. Cameron Norrie

Cameron Norrie summed up the players feelings when he said during the week “”I’m just trying to enjoy the last week of the year for me competing. I just want to take it match by match – I’m here another day, which is great, but I’ll have to improve my level to keep going further in the tournament.”

And he hasn’t done too badly as he has reached the semi-finals of the Moselle Open in Metz France where he faces the local Corentin Moutet, ranked 66, for a place in the final where he hopes to end the year as champion with his sixth title.

And it would certainly give him a great boost in morale for he hasn’t had the best of results over the past few months following a wrist injury picked up at the Olympics, causing him to slip down the rankings to 57. The withdrawal of the top seeded Andrei Rublev on the eve of his quarter final meeting with Moutet, will have improved the Brits chances of achieving that goal.

Rublev, and Casper Ruud, both entered the ATP 250 event in order to improve their chances of qualifying for Turin but following the withdrawal from of Novak Djokovic from next week’s listings, their qualification for the final eight was confirmed with Alex de Minuar, competing in the Belgrade Open. He also withdrew from his event on the news of the Serbian’s
Decision to miss the ATP Finals where he was the defending champion.

The 29-year-old Brit moved into the last four in Metz with a 6-3 6-7(6) 6-1 win over Belgium’s Zizou Bergs, ranked 61, after failing to convert two match points in the tie break.

“I should have had the tie-breaker in the second set but he played quicker than me and took a bit more risk,” Norrie admitted later.

“I was not happy but I managed to reset.

“He’s a good player and had a really good year so it’s a really great win for me.”

Meanwhile in Belgrade, the semi-finals are dominated by three Europeans plus Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, a qualifier, who seems to have rediscovered some of his lost form,

The Serbian wild card, Laslo Djere, took out the Hungarian Fabian Marozan 6-4 6-2 to make the last four where he faces another Serbian wildcard, Hamad Medjokovic, the 6-4 6-2 winner over Argentina’s third seeded Francisco Cerundolo.

(Photo by Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)

“I think it was tough, but when you have a crowd like this, it’s crazy,” said Medjedovic following his win. “I’m playing really good here. I’m feeling amazing in front of my crowd. I think I really found my level after a long time. I was working hard to find it, but in today’s match I think I played the best so far and I’m happy that I won.”

The 21-year-old, who converted four of 10 break points he earned, added: “With these kinds of players, top players, you have to be focused throughout the whole match. I think I was losing my focus in the beginning of the second set, but I was trying to hold my nerves and trying to be better and better. I think in the middle of the second set I found my level again and I was playing good.”

In the bottom half the Czech Jiri Lehecka, seeded 4, survived a tough battle with the Slovak qualifier Lukas Klein 3-6 7-6(3) 6-3 to face Shapovalov who swept past Australia’s Christopher O’Connell 6-2 6-2.