Cameron Norrie controversially docked a point during French Open tie against Benoit Paire
Another controversial moment at the ongoing 2023 French Open as Cameron Norrie docked a point due to bad umpiring during his opening round match with Benoit Paire
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Cameron Norrie and Benoit Paire (Image via: ATP)
In what can be termed a brain fade moment from the chair umpire, British No. 1 Cameron Norrie has been docked a point in his opening round match against local boy Benoit Paire at the 2023 French Open.
Though Norrie eventually prevailed in a five-set marathon, this baffling decision changed the course of the match. 14th-seed Norrie entered this match as a favorite in front of a vociferous crowd at the Court Suzanne Lenglen, which was unanimously behind their home favorite. Norrie won the opening set 6-4 and was tied at 1-1 with Paire in the second when the incident happened.
The Brit was serving, and during the rally, he hit a forehand down the line, which was unanswered by Paire. However, instead of awarding the point to Norrie, the chair umpire gave the point to his French counterpart, a decision that shocked both players. The reason the umpire gave for this was that he thought that Norrie shouted “yeah” in celebration of winning the point, which he called a “hindrance,” and that’s why he awarded the point to Paire.
“I consider what you shouted now a hindrance,” the umpire said when Norrie walked up to question the call. The 27-year-old questioned, “I just grunted, no?” To this, the umpire replied, “You didn’t grunt before; for me, that sounded like you said ‘yeah’. I might be wrong but…”
This point certainly changed the course of the match, as Paire, who was equally surprised by the umpire’s decision, got a breakpoint on Norrie’s serve and, at 30-40, hit a winner on his opponent’s second serve to get a brake. Paire capitalized on this and won the next two sets, and he was on the verge of an upset before Norrie regrouped and clinched the last two sets to advance to the next round. The match also witnessed the crowd booing relentlessly at Norrie during the encounter, though the actual reason is unknown.
Cameron Norrie has earlier also been part of a controversy
This is not the first time Norrie has landed in a hot soup. The player from Great Britain was heavily criticized by 22-time Major winner Novak Djokovic during their Round of 16 matches at the 2023 Italian Open, as Djokovic felt that his opponent was ‘grunting’ way too loud and unnecessarily and causing distraction.
The tension was palpable between the two during the match, as Norrie even hit a smash straight at Djokovic, which, though unintentional, wasn’t liked by the Serb one bit. Nevertheless, this time it was not actually Norrie’s fault but poor umpiring that cost him a point, and it could have eventually also cost him the match. This year’s Roland Garros began just yesterday, and the controversies have already begun.
On the first day, Marta Kostyuk refused to shake hands with Aryna Sabalenka after the match got over, and today Norrie got a point docked. This tournament is looking interesting in the initial stages itself.
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Kushagra Gupta
(349 Articles Published)