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Sunday's match will be Norrie's sixth showpiece match of the
year and first at a Masters 1000 event as the Briton's breakout
season continues.
Norrie raced out to a 4-0 lead and wrapped up the first set in
just 31 minutes with a service winner.
Dimitrov attempted to mount a comeback in the second set but
after notching impressive come-from-behind victories over Hubert
Hurkacz and Daniil Medvedev in his previous two matches, the
Bulgarian appeared to run out of gas on a hot day in the
California desert.
Norrie, who won his first ATP title at the Los Cabos Open
earlier this year, held his nerve to serve out the match and
sealed the win when Dimitrov netted a service return.
"I've made a conscious decision to be more aggressive in the
bigger moments and taking it to the guys," Norrie said after
collecting the biggest win of his career.
"I'm not a guy who is going to blow you off the court and hit a
lot of winners. So I like to get into the longer rallies and
make the match physical. And when it's like that, it's on my
terms."
With the win, Norrie will break into the top 20 for the first
time when rankings are updated on Monday.
The other semifinal of the day was a slugfest that pitted
Basilashvili's booming forehand against Fritz's potent serve.
San Diego native Fritz had the support of the crowd but came up
short in the match's biggest moments, failing to convert any of
his seven break-point opportunities, including three in the
opener that would have won him the set.
Basilashvili made the most of his lone break opportunity,
crushing a service return that Fritz could not handle to take a
4-2 lead in the second that he would not relinquish despite
needing four match points to reach the finish line.
Norrie beat Basilashvili comfortably in their only other
meeting, and the 26-year-old lefty will be the favorite on
Sunday.
The tournament was not held last year due to the COVID-19
pandemic and was pushed back from March to October this year due
to the global health crisis.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; editing by Pritha
Sarkar and Jonathan Oatis)
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