Cameron Norrie has no intention of changing his approach after being accused by Novak Djokovic of crossing the boundaries of fair play.
The pair had a feisty exchange at the last 16 of the Italian Open earlier this month in which Norrie hit Djokovic with an overhead after the Serbian had turned his back.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion was riled by that as well as his opponent’s repeated fist bumps and his medical timeout. Norrie apologised at the time for the incident at the net but said he saw nothing else wrong with his on-court behaviour.
“I apologised straight away and I didn’t see him,” said the British No1, the last Briton standing in the singles at the French Open after his round-one win over Benoit Paire. “I looked up and hit the ball down low. I didn’t see him turn and concede the point. I wanted to win. I don’t have anything to say.”
Following their on-court exchanges, Djokovic had said: “From the very beginning, he was doing all the things that were allowed. He’s allowed to take a medical timeout, he’s allowed to hit a player.
“He’s allowed to say ‘come on’ in the face more or less every single point from basically the first game. Those are the things that we players know in the locker room it’s not fair play, it’s not how we treat each other.”
But Norrie, who said he had yet to see Djokovic in Paris to discuss the incident, doesn’t believe he did anything wrong.
“I didn’t think I was in his face at all,” he said. “I’m pretty vocal in some matches. If you’re doing it [fist bumping] right in front of someone’s face and looking at them and trying to taunt them, that’s not great. I was not doing that.
“I think it’s part of the game. I love seeing players compete and really get up for the matches and really wanting to win. I’m not trying to do it to distract the other guy or anything, I’m just really pumped to win every point I can. This is the only time that anyone’s had an issue with it.”
