Cameron Norrie: British number two on French Open, Olympics & Andy Murray

Jumping out of a plane may not be everyone's idea of preparing for a tennis tournament but Cameron Norrie has always done things a bit differently.

The British number two, who has a Scottish dad and Welsh mum, was born in South Africa and brought up in New Zealand before playing college tennis in the United States.

While many of his peers took the more conventional route from junior tennis to the professional Futures circuit, Norrie chose to combine his sport with studying for a sociology degree, in order to have a more "normal life".

Now, less than two years after turning professional, the 23-year-old left-hander - who calls his favourite shot a 'squirrel' - has stormed up the rankings to 41st in the world and reached his first ATP final. in January.

Norrie - who plays at the French Open, which starts on Sunday - tells BBC Sport about his Olympic dreams, being recognised in public for the first time and what happened the first time he met Andy Murray.

Norrie is often frank in his assessments - he ditched economics for sociology because "it was slightly easier", describes Wimbledon as "just another tournament" and says that what he learned from training with former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro was "honestly, nothing".

It is, perhaps, the result of three years of college life at Texas Christian University - where he says he grew up a lot - and demonstrates the sense of perspective that comes with broader interests.

"College tennis was huge for me, to give me the chance to mature a little bit and have more of a normal life," he said.

"Life on Tour is pretty tough when you are 17, 18 - traveling the world by yourself for the majority of the time. With college tennis, you have a decent social life, you can compete hard with your mates and you are working hard with them. You have interests outside of tennis too, which is huge.

"It was nice to have [studies] to switch off from the tennis, and to be able to go out with your mates and have a good time and then you are ready to practice the next day. I felt I found a good balance with that and it helped me a lot as a person."

Norrie thinks more players should consider the college route.

He said: "Life is not all about tennis. You want to be a pro tennis player from a young age but it takes so many steps - mentally and physically - just to get to the top of the game. So why not go and get free education and live a more normal life?

"Learn about yourself, just grow up. If you still want to play your tennis, you have so many more years to play and you are going to save a lot of mental scarring from taking a lot of losses in the Futures.

"You lose at college and then you back are with your girlfriend the next day and everything is good. You don't lose any money, everything is paid for."