A woman in New Zealand had a terrifying moment Tuesday when a tennis racket unexpectedly flew in her direction.
The incident occurred during the first round of the ASB Classic in Auckland when Cameron Norrie returned a forehand into the net.
Frustrated, Norrie, who played in the same city he was born in, threw the racket behind him, but apparently threw it too far.
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Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie practices before the Wimbledon tournament in London on June 30, 2024. (GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
The noise hit the woman in the front row and Norrie received a warning.
The woman was not hurt and in fact did quite well.
“[The fan] I was laughing and I just said, ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.’ And she said, ‘Yes, I’m completely fine.’ That wasn’t a big deal,” Norrie said after the game. “But as we saw with other players, you can easily default if you catch them in the wrong place or they’re not looking or something like that.”
The racket toss came as Norrie trailed 6-2, 5-3. He would lose that game shortly after and leave the match.
“I’m not the one who should 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.
Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie appears during the singles semi-final match of the ATP 500 Rio Open in Rio de Janeiro on February 24, 2024. (MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty Images)
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Norrie’s first-round exit comes two years after he reached the final of the tournament.
At the 2020 US Open, with the stands empty due to COVID-19 restrictions, Novak Djokovic was disqualified after accidentally hitting a linesman with a ball. At the 2023 French Open, Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi were excluded from the women’s doubles after a ball hit by Kato hit a ball girl.
Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie returns during a men’s singles round of 32 match in Eastbourne, England, on June 25, 2024. (GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
The Auckland tournament offers players a final warm-up before the Australian Open. The singles draw will be announced on Thursday and the first round will begin on Sunday.
