Novak Djokovic and Cameron Norrie had a rather tense match in Rome on Tuesday. The Serbian sensation was extremely unhappy with the behavior of his opponent, that hit him in the back during a rally and was extremely “agitated” during the match.
This is the video showing what happened.
Cam Norrie hits Novak Djokovic with an overhead
You have to love the stare of death Novak shoots back at him 🥶
Show this to anyone who say tennis isn’t a contact sport 😂pic.twitter.com/tROlMPmPlb
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 16, 2023
“I did watch the replay when he hit me. Yeah, maybe you could say he didn’t hit me deliberately. I don’t know if he saw me. I mean, peripheralically [sic] you can always see where the player is positioned on the court. The ball was super slow and super close to the net. I just turned around because the point was over for me.
It was not so much maybe about that, but it was maybe a combination of things. From the very beginning, I don’t know, he was doing all the things that were allowed. He’s allowed to take a medical timeout. He’s allowed to hit a player. He’s allowed to say C’mon in the face more or less every single point from basically first game.
Those are the things that we players know in the locker room it’s not fair play, it’s not how we treat each other. But, again, it’s allowed, so…
I got along with Cameron really well all these years that he’s been on the tour. Practiced with each other. He’s very nice guy off the court, so I don’t understand this kind of attitude on the court, to be honest.
But it is what it is. He brought the fire, and I responded to that. I’m not going to allow someone behaving like this just bending my head. I’m going to respond to that.
That’s all it is. What happens on the court, we leave it on the court, and we move on.”
Djokovic in Rome, ranking, and results in 2023
WWLWWWWWWW Ranked world no.1, Djokovic has a compiled 20-3 match record in 2023. Djokovic is currently having a run in Rome where he managed to beat the world no.61 Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-65 6-2, the world no.33 Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 4-6 6-1 and the world no.13 Cameron Norrie 6-3 6-4.
Novak Djokovic will square off with the world no.7 Holger Rune in the quarter on Wednesday at 1:00 pm on CENTER COURT. Their actual head to head record is 1-1.
The Serbian conquered 2 titles in 2023 in Adelaide and Australian Open.
Novak won 93 titles in his career: 50 on hard courts, 18 on clay courts, 17 on indoor courts and 8 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
Djokovic is scheduled to compete next at the French Open (French Open). He will start to play the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 28th of May.
Cameron Norrie in 2023
At the moment ranked no.13, Norrie played his last match on the 16th of May when he lost to world no.1 Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-4 in the 4th round in Rome (draw).
This season Norrie owns a composed 25-9 record. Norrie clinched 1 title in Rio de Janeiro. The Brit reached the final in Auckland and Buenos Aires.
He is also scheduled to play at the French Open (French Open) after Lyon. The main draw will start on the 21st of May.
Novak Djokovic and Cameron Norrie faced off 3 times. Their head to head is 3-0 for Djokovic. Before, the last time they fought against each other, Novak Djokovic won 6-3 6-4 in the 4th round in Rome (Internazionali BNL d’Italia) on the 16th of May 2023.
You can watch the highlights in the following video.
