Novak Djokovic reaches semi-finals beaten on Cameron Norrie ATP Finals debut
Norrie, 26, was the second alternate for the tournament and only found out he would be playing on Wednesday when Stefanos Tsitsipas withdrew injured. He ran away with the first set before Ruud hit back to win 1-6 6-3 6-4 and end Norrie's semi-final chances.
The British number one will still face Novak Djokovic in a final group match in Turin on Friday. There are only rankings points and prize money riding on the encounter with the world number one, who is already through to the last four following a 6-3 6-2 win over Russian Andrey Rublev earlier in the day.
But Norrie is still relishing the chance to face the 20-time Grand Slam champion for the first time." I can't wait," he said. "It's another test for me, and I'm going to go out and see if I belong, and I can compete with a guy like that. I'm looking forward to the challenge ahead."
Serb Djokovic will be joined in the last four by the winner of the match between world number eight Ruud and number five Rublev.
Playing at the elite tournament, which features the year's eight leading male players, caps a successful year for Norrie, who won the prestigious Indian Wells tournament in October and has reached a career-high ranking of 12th in the world.
Norrie has been in Turin all week, training and practising if he got the call-up to play. So when he found out at lunchtime that Tsitispas had not shaken off the elbow injury that had hampered him in recent weeks, the Briton was ready to take to the court in the evening.
Perhaps with last month's 6-0 6-2 loss to Ruud in the San Diego Open final still stinging, he got off to a blistering start. Ruud had admitted to feeling nervous in his opening defeat by world number one Djokovic on Monday. There was still an awkwardness about the Norwegian early on in this match.
He said he had been thrown by the late change of opponent, explaining: "I woke up prepared for playing Stefanos and knowing I was the underdog and I could play freely and then you hear that he's pulling out... so then kind of everything changed."
But he settled down in the second set and made the most of a sloppy Norrie service game to break and then served out the group to level. Ruud, 22, stepped up a gear in the decider and capitalised on Norrie's increasing error count - the Briton had hit just three unforced errors in the first two sets but struck 17 in the third.
The decisive break came in the fifth game, and although Norrie went on to save three match points, he could do nothing about the fourth."I wasn't getting the feel of his shots in the beginning, and I made too many mistakes," Ruud said. "I think for the first set and half a second, he was the much better player out there. My serve saved me a little bit today."
Norrie has enjoyed the best season of his career, and having been ranked 74th at the start of the year, simply appearing at this tournament - which is second only to the Grand Slams in terms of prestige - is a massive achievement in itself.
He reached six finals this year, winning two titles, and while his tour season may be over, he still has more tennis to play when he represents Great Britain at the Davis Cup Finals later this month.
"This week has been incredible for me so far," Norrie said. "I was using it as a training block towards heading into the Davis Cup, so it was a bonus to get a couple of matches in there, and there was a lot to play for and huge for the experience as well."
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