A woman in New Zealand had a scary moment on Tuesday when a tennis racket unexpectedly came flying in her direction.
The incident occurred during the first round of the ASB Classic in Auckland when Cameron Norrie hit a forehand return into the net.
Out of frustration, Norrie, who was playing in the same city he was born, threw the racket behind him, but he apparently flung it a little too far.
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The racket hit the woman in the front row, and Norrie was assessed a warning.
The woman was not hurt and actually played it off quite well.
"[The fan] 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," Norrie said after the match. "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."
The racket throw occurred while Norrie was trailing 6-2, 5-3. He would lose that game shortly afterward to drop the match.
"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," Norrie said.
The first-round exit for Norrie comes two years after he made the final in the tournament.
At the 2020 U.S. Open, with the stands empty due to COVID-19 restrictions, Novak Djokovic was disqualified after accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball. At the 2023 French Open, Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi were defaulted from the women's doubles after a ball hit by Kato struck a ball girl.
The Auckland tournament gives players one final warm-up before the Australian Open. The singles draw will be revealed on Thursday, with the first round beginning Sunday.
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