British No 2 Cameron Norrie has avoided disqualification after accidentally hitting a spectator with his racquet during a match at the ATP Tour tournament in Auckland.
The incident occurred during Norrie’s match against Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta at the ASB Classic.
The Auckland-born player was facing match point when he lightly tossed his racquet in the air.
The racquet struck a woman who was seated in a court-side box during the crucial moment of the match.
Cameron Norrie threw his racket into the crowd
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The incident occurred as Norrie appeared to show frustration during the final stages of his encounter with Diaz Acosta.
Following the incident, Norrie issued an apology for his actions at the Auckland tournament.
“I wasn’t meaning to do that but its still not ideal to be doing that and I’ve never done something like that,” Norrie said.
“(The spectator) 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 apologised very quickly and I want to apologise in general.
Cameron Norrie apologised to the woman in the crowd
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“I’m not happy with how I behaved.”
The spectator who was struck by the racquet was unhurt in the incident.
Tournament officials allowed Norrie to continue in the competition, choosing not to disqualify the British player for the racquet-throwing incident.
Novak Djokovic was famously booted out of the 2020 US Open after accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball.
Swedish tennis star Mikael Ymer was also disqualified from the French Open in 2023 after smashing racket to pieces in an epic meltdown.
Speaking after his disqualification from the 2020 US Open, Djokovic said he would never forget the incident.
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Cameron Norrie responds after throwing his racket into the crowd during his straight-sets defeat at the Auckland Classic 🎾 pic.twitter.com/ij9Qw55Pnn
— Sky Sports Tennis (@SkySportsTennis) January 7, 2025
“Of course it was a shock to finish the US Open the way things finished for me. Of course it could have happened earlier in my career, it could have happened to many players,” he said.
“It was just unfortunate it did hit the line umpire in an unfortunate place. There was a lot of speculation about whether it was deserved. I accepted it, I moved on.
“I felt really sorry to cause the shock and drama to her. I felt very good about myself, my game. It was totally unexpected and very unintended but, when you hit the ball like that, you have a chance to hit somebody that is on the court.
“I accepted it and I had to move on. Of course I didn’t forget about it, I don’t think I’ll ever forget about it.”
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