- Cam Norrie suffered a straight sets loss to Facundo Díaz on Tuesday
- But the British star appeared to throw his racket into the air in a fit of rage.
Cameron Norrie was defeated in straight sets at the ASB Classic in New Zealand on Tuesday, but in a fit of rage he appeared to throw his racquet into the air before hitting a spectator.
The moment came before the British star suffered a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Facundo Díaz, with his racket spinning out of control and landing in the audience sitting behind the baseline.
The 29-year-old, who will travel to Australia for next week’s Grand Slam in Melbourne, received a warning from the chair umpire but none of the spectators were injured by the incident.
After the loss, Norrie apologized for the moment and told reporters that it had served as a wake-up call, before revealing that the customer he had hit had had an unexpected reaction in response to his racquet hit.
“I just said sorry and she laughed,” said the Brit, explaining the situation.
“I said ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.'” And she said, “Yes, I’m completely fine.”
“And she was enjoying her champagne or whatever (so) it’s not a big deal, but as you saw with other players, you can easily miss if you catch them in the wrong place or they’re not looking or something like that.
“It wasn’t my intention to do that and it’s 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,” he added.
In a separate statement, Norrie revealed that his frustrations stemmed from issues with timing.
“I was missing the ball a lot… I’m disappointed in my attitude, I couldn’t find the ball at all,” he said.
Norrie was seen speaking to the lady after the incident occurred and said he had apologized.
“I’m disappointed by my attitude, I couldn’t find the ball at all. I apologized to the woman and she was fine… She barely touched it and she was laughing. But I didn’t mean to do that.
Norrie was making his ninth appearance at the ASB Classic in Auckland after what has been a frustrating year in which he dropped out of the ATP Tour’s top 50 rankings.
While he had battled his way to 48th in the rankings, Norrie had to battle poor results and a biceps injury that kept him out of action for almost three months.
Despite today’s defeat, the Briton has not been particularly bad in recent months: he suffered a defeat in the ATP250 final in Metz in November, before being eliminated in the ATP250 quarter-finals in Hong Kong in December Kai Nishikori.
But on Tuesday, some fans on social media criticized his behavior.
One fan wrote: “Sorry BUT if Scam Norrie is not from New Zealand at his home tournament he will 100% be beaten.”
‘THAT HAS TO BE A DQ.’
‘I mean it’s definitely a one-point penalty. Still not as bad as Joker punching the linesman in the throat…
“She literally had to be hospitalized…that’s the key difference between a disqualification and a penalty,” another fan wrote.
More to follow…