British No 1 Cameron Norrie was on the end of a furious Novak Djokovic death stare after hitting the Serbian with a full-blooded smash during their lively encounter in Rome.
A direct hit on the back of the world No 1’s left ankle/calf enlivened their round of 16 clash at the Rome Masters, where the normally mild-mannered Norrie sparked the unexpected flashpoint.
Djokovic clearly considered this an unacceptable display of aggression after he had turned his back and given up the point.
From Norrie’s perspective, however, it could be argued that he was looking up at the ball – a gentle and juicy lob, right on top of the net – and thus might not have seen that his opponent was walking back to the service line, with no intention of continuing the rally.
While Norrie apologised at once, he did so briefly and then got on with his business. From the way Djokovic reacted, he had expected something more fulsome. The next time the two men crossed paths, as they returned to their chairs for a changeover, he eyeballed Norrie again.
The below incident happened on what, at the time, seemed a significant moment in the middle of the second set. Already a set and a break down, Norrie was trying to convert a rare break point.
He played a delicate drop shot, which clipped the net cord on its way over. Djokovic countered with a drop shot of his own, whereupon Norrie earned a second net-cord deflection with a forehand drive. In the circumstances, Djokovic showed incredible reactions merely to pop the ball back up in the air, whereupon he turned his back – and then felt that whack on the left leg.
Whatever the rights and wrongs, provoking Djokovic is not generally advised. He soon broke again and served out for a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win, despite Norrie taking an injury time-out for a hip-flexor problem during the final changeover.
The two men did shake hands, but it was not the warmest of meetings at the net, and there was virtually no eye-contact. One wonders whether Djokovic’s late arrival on court at the start of the match (he was 10 minutes behind schedule, apparently because he needed treatment on a shoulder problem that he felt during his warm-up) had already added a little extra edge to the contest, even before the offending smash.
Djokovic, the defending champion in Rome, is thus through to the quarter-finals. But even if he goes on to lift the title for an extraordinary seventh time, he is still guaranteed to lose the world No 1 ranking to Carlos Alcaraz – who had suffered a shock defeat to world No 135 Fabian Marozsan on Monday – at the end of this event.
“You could say that Cam had his eyes on the ball,” said Amazon Prime commentator Mark Petchey in his post-match analysis, “but as a tennis player you know where your opponent is in that situation. By the fact that he didn’t apologise twice, you kind of know he meant it.”
