A narrow escape! British tennis star Cameron Norrie found himself in the center of a controversy in the dying moments of his first-round (R32) match at the 2025 ASB Classic. Norrie lost that match to Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta by 2-6,3-6. However, more than his early exit from the tournament, his bizarre act of throwing the racquet toward a spectator has made the headlines in Auckland. Did he get defaulted for his actions, though? Well, the answer is no, but why?

The incident took place when Cameron Norrie netted a shot while trailing 6-2,5-3 to the Argentinian. He threw his racquet in frustration, which went to the fan sitting in the front row. The fan appeared unhurt, but the chair umpire, Greg Allensworth issued a warning to Norrie. But there was no disqualification.

According to various reports, Norrie wasn’t defaulted despite throwing a racquet to the crowd because the fan was completely alright. The spectator was well aware that the racquet was coming at her and she caught it. It didn’t take her by surprise and that’s why Norrie was let go with just a warning. Cameron Norrie later issued an apology for his outrageous act during the match. He said, “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 further added, “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.”

Is it the first time, we’ve seen Cameron Norrie in troubled waters surrounding these types of incidents, though? Well, in the 2022 US Open, the umpire gave him a code violation for a similar sort of act during his match against Andrey Rublev. He lost the match to Rublev and there was a point in this epic encounter when the Brit threw his racquet on the floor in rage. 

Who are the other players who previously got into some real trouble, unlike Cameron Norrie for such blunders during a match?

Not everyone has the luck of Cameron Norrie

Players have previously gotten into some real trouble due to their similar conduct during the matches. For example, Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the 2020 US Open after accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball. The Serb was playing Carrena Bustan in the men’s singles R16 and was serving in the eleventh game at 5-5 in the first set. Djokovic was unable to hold serve as Busta broke through for a 6-5 lead. He was then all set to serve for the set.

Frustrated with the serve break, Djokovic attempted to hit a stray ball into the empty stands in frustration. However, it accidentally hit a line judge on the throat. The Serb rushed in to check on her but it was too late! The chair umpire and the tournament referee were seen having a long discussion and then later on Carrena Busta was awarded the match, by default. Novak Djokovic even issued an apology after that saying, “This whole situation has left me really sad and empty. I checked on the lines person and the tournament told me that thank God she is feeling ok. I‘m extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So unintended. So wrong.” 

Not everyone has had these narrow escapes like Cameron Norrie. Previously during the 2023 French Open, Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi were defaulted from the women’s doubles event after a ball hit by Kato struck a ball girl. In the same year, the Aussie tennis player, Marc Polmas also got defaulted from the final round of the qualifiers at the Shanghai Masters after hitting a ball into the face of the chair umpire.

Even Canadian tennis star, Denis Shapovalov was once defaulted for a similar unsportsmanlike conduct. He was also fined $7000 when he accidentally hit a ball in anger which caught chair umpire Arnaud Gabas in the eye during a Davis Cup tie.

Cameron Norrie was very lucky that an act of rage by him didn’t hurt the fan in the stand. Shoud he have been disqualified? What are your thoughts?