British tennis star Cameron Norrie apologized and avoided disqualification when a racket he threw in the air hit a spectator on Tuesday at the ATP Tour tournament in Auckland.
Norrie, born in Auckland, was facing match point against the Argentine Facundo Díaz Acosta when he lightly threw his racket in the air. The racket hit a woman in the stands, who was unharmed.
Norrie received a warning from the chair umpire and lost 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the tournament. He had reached the final of this tournament in 2023.
"It wasn't my intention to do it, but it's still not ideal and I have never done something like this before," said Norrie. "The spectator was laughing, and I said 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that.' And she said 'yes, I'm completely fine,'" he explained.
"It wasn't that big of a deal. I apologized quickly and want to apologize in general. I'm not happy with my behavior," Norrie added.
Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the 2020 US Open after accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball, and at the 2023 French Open, Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi were expelled from the women's doubles after a ball hit by Kato struck a ball kid.
Also in 2023, Australian tennis player Marc Polmans was expelled from the final qualifying round of the Shanghai Masters after hitting a ball into the face of the chair umpire.