'It was a shocker' - Cam Norrie crashes out of the ASB Classic

Tuesday, 7 January 2025, 7:48 pm
Article: RNZ

Jamie Wall, Digital Sports Journalist

If Cam Norrie is going to stage a career resurgence this season, it's unfortunately going to have to happen offshore. The Auckland-raised product was bundled out of this year's ASB Classic in straight sets, losing 6-2 6-3 to Argentine qualifier Facundo Diaz Acosta.

It's a bitter loss for Norrie, now ranked 48 in the world, who suffered the indignity of picking up an unsportsmanlike conduct warning for throwing his racquet just before the match's conclusion.

That was on a match point he saved, but that sort of fighting quality was in short supply otherwise.

"It was a bit of a shocker from me … I didn't feel the ball at all," Norrie said post-match.

"I was missing the ball a lot, but credit to him. He did nothing wrong. I'm disappointed in my attitude, I couldn't find the ball at all."

Diaz Acosta broke in the fifth game, and Norrie brought up three break points in the next, but the Argentine world number 78 fought back to hold.

That seemed to be a serious blow to Norrie, who let Diaz Acosta cruise through to win the remaining games in the set.

The lack of rhythm continued into the second, Norrie blasting an easy smash opportunity into the net on the way to be broken in only the second game and it looked like the match was heading for an early finish.

However, Norrie finally woke up and started playing like the player that reached up to eight in 2022, first breaking back and holding in consecutive love games.

However, the resurgence was short-lived. Diaz Acosta went back to simply placing the ball near the baseline with his accurate returns, giving Norrie little to work with.

The rest of the set did have a couple of breaks back and forth, but Norrie never regained enough consistent control to swing the match back in his favour.

"It was good to come back there, but like I said, I was not feeling comfortable. I was throwing my racquet, that's not like me at all," said Norrie.

His racquet throw was more a toss of frustration than an aggressive outburst, however, it took a bad bounce and almost ended up hitting one of the patrons in the courtside box.

Had it been worse, Norrie may well have been disqualified outright.

"I apologised to the woman, and she was okay ... it barely touched her and she was laughing. But I didn't mean to do that, and it was definitely a wake-up call.

"I wanted to come here and play well, and it ended up being the complete opposite."

Massive credit must go to Diaz Acosta, who came in as a lucky loser qualifier after the draw went through a lot of changes at the last minute.

It also shows just how competitive the field is here in men's tennis right now, with the gap between players ranked from 20-100 all highly capable of beating one another on any given day.

But this stands as one of the most disappointing losses in Norrie's career.

He has come off a tough 2024 season, in which a bicep injury saw him sit out a sizeable chunk of court time, now he moves on to the Australian Open having played four fewer matches than he would've hoped.

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