Frustrated tennis star Cam Norrie hits spectator with thrown racquet at ASB Classic in Auckland

British tennis star Cam Norrie has crashed out of the ASB Classic, but was lucky not to be disqualified for throwing his racquet into the crowd and hitting a fan.

Norrie, the world No.48, fell to a surprising 6-2 6-3 loss to Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta at the tournament in Auckland, New Zealand on Tuesday.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Cam Norrie throws racquet and hits a fan.

As the match was slipping away in the final set, Norrie became increasingly frustrated.

With Diaz Acosta serving for the match, scores were locked at 30-30 when Norrie failed to get a regulation return back into play.

He immediately threw his racquet behind him, but it flew into an unsuspecting spectator sitting in the front row.

She was able to quickly get her hands up and divert the flying racquet to the ground as Norrie offered an apology.

The fan was unhurt by the incident and could be seen telling the chair umpire that she’s OK.

The chair umpire then issued a code violation warning to Norrie.

Diaz Acosta wrapped up the match three points later, but many believed Norrie should have been disqualified on the spot.

“Cam Norrie almost DQed there before match point,” prominent tennis reporter Jose Morgado said.

Fans were quick to call out the lack of disqualification with some suggesting Norrie was given preferential treatment because he grew up in New Zealand.

“Norrie throwing his racquet around out of frustration should have been disqualified but was given a warning instead,” one fan said.

“I’m sorry but if (Cam) Norrie isn’t from New Zealand at his home tournament he 100 per cent gets defaulted. That has to be a DQ,” another said.

“Norrie threw his racquet into the stand after a missed return hitting a fan, I’m pretty sure rules state that is a default but Norrie gets just a warning,” another added.

Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the 2020 US Open after accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball and 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.

Also in 2023, Australian player Marc Polmans was defaulted from the final round of qualifying at the Shanghai Masters after hitting a ball into the face of the chair umpire.

Norrie later addressed the incident, saying it was an accident.

“I wasn’t meaning to do that but it’s still not ideal to be doing that and I’ve never done something like that,” Norrie said.

“(The spectator) 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. 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.

“I was not meaning to do that and it is completely not me to do something like that. I apologised very quickly and I want to apologise in general. I’m not happy with how I behaved.”

Norrie was a consistent top-20 player for the past four years, reaching a career-high No.8 in 2022.

The second half of his 2024 season was hampered by an arm injury, which ruled him out of the Olympics and US Open.

Norrie reached the fourth round of the Australian Open last year as the No.19 seed, but will struggle to match that given he won’t be seeded this time.

- With AAP