British tennis player Cameron Norrie has issued an apology after accidentally hitting a spectator with his racket during his 6-2, 6-3 defeat to Facundo Díaz Acosta at the Auckland Classic. In frustration, Norrie tossed his racket backwards after hitting a netted shot that gave Díaz Acosta match point, and the racket narrowly missed the spectator’s face. The woman raised her hands to avoid being struck but appeared to take the incident lightly.
Norrie, who received a warning but was not disqualified, expressed his regret over the mishap. “I apologized to the woman, and she was okay … it barely touched her and she was laughing,” he said in a post-match interview. “It was a wake-up call for me. I came here to play well, but it ended up being the complete opposite. Throwing my racket is not like me at all,” he added, acknowledging his discomfort during the match.
Cameron Norrie further expressed regret over the incident, acknowledging the potential consequences of his actions. “As we’ve seen with other players, you can be defaulted if the racket hits the wrong spot or if the person isn’t paying attention,” the 29-year-old said. “I didn’t intend for that to happen, and it’s completely out of character for me. I apologized right away, and I want to apologize again in general. I’m not happy with how I behaved.”
Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the 2020 US Open after accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball. Similarly, Denis Shapovalov was defaulted in 2017 when he struck the umpire with a ball during a Davis Cup match against Great Britain.
In contrast, Stefanos Tsitsipas was fined $10,000 at Wimbledon in 2022 but avoided disqualification after hitting a ball into the stands during a heated third-round match against Nick Kyrgios.
Looking ahead, Facundo Díaz Acosta will face his fellow Argentine Sebastián Báez in the Round of 16. Cameron Norrie, who grew up in Auckland, will next compete at the Australian Open, where he reached the fourth round last year before being defeated by Alexander Zverev.
