British number two Cameron Norrie accidentally hit a spectator with his racket during his defeat in the opening round of the ASB Classic in Auckland.
Norrie was knocked out in straight sets by Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta, losing 6-2 6-3. As the match slipped out of his grasp, the world number 48 could be seen letting his frustration get to him.
Footage from the match showed the 29-year-old throw his racket in anger and accidentally hit a spectator in the front row of the centre court.
Norrie said in a post-match interview: “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 spectator] was laughing and I just said: ‘So sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.’ And she said: ‘Yeah, I’m completely OK.’”
Norrie went on to admit that he ‘wasn’t happy with his behaviour’ in the defeat to Acosta, who will face face compatriot Sebastian Baez in the second round.
“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. I’m not happy with how I behaved.”
Norrie, who grew up in Auckland, said his own match had been a “shocker”.
“I was missing the ball a lot…I’m disappointed in my attitude, I couldn’t find the ball at all,” Norrie told RNZ. “I wanted to come here and play well, and it ended up being the complete opposite.”
Fellow Brit Paul Jubb has failed to qualify for the Australian Open, going down to Argentina’s Juan Pablo Ficovich 6-4 6-4.
Despite Jubb’s best efforts, Ficovich proved forceful in the first set, with the Briton struggling to match the Argentinian’s service game.
Ficovich, with a current ATP ranking of 193, came out of the gate strong and won an early break during the first set. Jubb, who has a current ATP ranking of 189, was unable to recover from the early setback, giving up the set 6-4.
The Argentine continued to overwhelm Jubb thereafter, leading to consecutive breaks that gave him a 5-1 lead, before sealing a victory on 6-4 to advance to the second round of the Australian Open qualifiers.
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