(VIDEO) Cameron Norrie narrowly avoids ASB Classic disqualification, accidentally hurls racquet at spectator

Cameron Norrie is a very lucky player not to have been defaulted and fined during his defeat to Facundo Diaz Acosta at the ASB Classic after accidentally hurling.his racquet at a spectator.

Norrie was facing match point against Diaz Acosta when he lightly tossed his racquet in the air. It struck a woman in the court-side box who was unhurt.

He received a warning from the umpire albeit in most other circumstances would've been defaulted from the tie. He went on to lose 6-2, 6-3 anyway so it was academic but the 2023 finalist towed a fine line in this case.

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“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,” Norrie said. (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.

“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.”

Two of the most famous incidents of this were Novak Djokovic accidentally hitting a line judge during an infamous US Open incident as well as Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi being defaulted from women's doubles after Kato struck a ball girl and their opponents complained to the umpire.

Both stirred huge debate about whether or whether not they should've been defaulted but in Norrie's case he gets away with it as well as the likely fine that came with it. He also suffers another early defeat as he continues to aim to get his career back on track.

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