Cameron Norrie rejects Holger Rune’s accusations of sportsmanship: ‘I’m not doing it on purpose’
Cameron Norrie has brushed off suggestions from Holger Rune that he used some sportsmanship to exploit the shot-clock rule with his erratic ball tossing during their third-round clash at the US Open.
Players only have 25 seconds between points, but the short clock stops once the server tosses the ball in the air, meaning catching the ball buys extra time as you can reset.
There was quite a bit of wind around on Saturday and Norrie caught the ball several times before resetting and serving, much to the frustration of his opponent.
“Are you kidding me?” the world No 33 shouted during the match as he implored the chair umpire to give Norrie a warning.
“Just before the time runs out, he serves, every time.”
Cameron Norrie ‘feeling great’ as his superb Grand Slam form continues with win over Holger Rune
When no warning was forthcoming, the Dane added: “You really think he’s not doing it on purpose?”
The 19-year-old explained during the press conference why he was “annoyed”.
“I think it’s a fine balance,” the teenager said. “You have those 25 seconds and the umpire accepts that if you’re at one second and you do it you can let it go and take five, 10 seconds to bounce it again and then serve, and then you all of a sudden have 10 seconds.
“It’s a bit annoying. I’m not controlling the rules but I think you can do it a couple of times but doing it 10, 15 times is maybe too much.”
Seventh seed Norrie, who won 7-5, 6-4, 6-1, was having none of it.
“I’m not doing it on purpose. I’d love to go out there and have a perfect ball toss every time and get up there and hit rockets. It can happen sometimes. I’d rather play quick. I like to play quick,” he said.
The British No 1 faces ninth seed Andrey Rublev next and he admits it was nice to have some protection as a seed.
“I think it’s great with the seeding. You can work your way more into the tournament than going out there, having to play a top seed early on,” he said.
“I’ve still got a lot of things I would like to improve, and I’ve got tomorrow to do that.”
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