At the Auckland Classic, Cameron Norrie apologized after accidentally hitting a spectator with his thrown racquet during a match against Facundo Diaz Acosta, which he lost in straight sets.
The athlete was given a warning due to the incident that occurred when he was 6-2 5-2 behind his opponent, but he was not disqualified.
Norrie said: “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 an Instagram story, Norrie also said: “Tough way to exit in AKL – apologies to all who came to support. My attitude was not there yesterday and need to be better. Much love Aotearoa.”
The incident
Norrie threw his racquet behind him and into the crowd due to frustration after the former world No. 8 netted to give the match point to Diaz Acosta of Argentina. The chair umpire made sure the woman who was hit was unharmed and proceeded to give Norrie a warning for unsportsmanlike behaviour.
After three points, Diaz Acosta won with a final score of 6-2 6-3.
“[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,” Norrie added.
Novak Djokovic was disqualified after accidentally striking a ball towards a line judge during the 2020 US Open’s fourth round. Denis Shapovalov of Canada was defaulted for striking the umpire with a ball in a Davis Cup match against Great Britain in 2017, and David Nalbandian was disqualified at the 2012 Queen’s after kicking an advertising board into the shin of a line judge.
Source: BBC