Cameron Norrie hit an Auckland spectator after throwing his racket in a moment of frustration but didn’t get defaulted and later defended himself he absolutely didn’t intend to do that.
With lucky loser Facundo Diaz Acosta serving for the match at 6-2 5-3 and the score being tied to 30/30, the British tennis player missed a return – which gave the Argentinian a match point.
Frustrated by the missed return, Norrie tossed his racket in the stands and it hit a lady.
Cameron Norrie© X screenshot
The chair umpire instantly stood out of his chair – asked the lady in question if she was fine – and when she confirmed everything was okay, the British player was only handed a code violation.
I’m sorry BUT if Scam Norrie isn’t from New Zealand at his home tournament he 100% gets defeated.
THAT HAS TO BE A DQ pic.twitter.com/ovMenNM0aN
— _ (@cfcj_j) January 7, 2025
The 2022 Wimbledon semifinalist maybe didn’t get disqualified after the incident but the match still ended shortly after as Diaz Acosta managed to close out the match.
Norrie: She said ‘I’m completely OK’
According to the 29-year-old, the lady was actually laughing over the situation and definitely didn’t feel harmed or anything like that.
“I wasn’t meaning to do that but it’s still not ideal to be doing that and I’ve never done something like that,” the former world No. 8 said.
“She was laughing and I just said ‘so sorry, I didn’t mean to do that’. And she said ‘yeah, I’m completely OK.’
“That was not a big deal. But as we saw with some other players, you can easily be defaulted if it catches them in the wrong spot or they’re not looking or something.
“I was not meaning to do that and it is completely not me to do something like that. I apologized very quickly and I want to apologize in general. I’m not happy with how I behaved.”
In the past, Norrie twice finished as runner-up in Auckland.
Knowing that Auckland was a successful place for him in the past, it is understandable why the current world No. 48 felt frustrated when inches away from losing in the first round this year.
Tennis World USA