Cam Norrie holds talks with Novak Djokovic over feud as Serb branded ‘difficult’

Cameron Norrie has revealed that his spat with Novak Djokovic has been resolved after the pair held talks following their Italian Open feud last month. The Brit provoked an angry response from Djokovic when he smashed a ball into the back of his opponent’s leg on his way to a straight-sets defeat at the hands of the Serb, who was later knocked out in the quarter-finals by Holger Rune.

Djokovic appeared to have been irked by the incident and had plenty to say regarding Norrie’s behaviour following the match despite the 27-year-old issuing an immediate apology on the court. The former questioned whether he had been hit deliberately by Norrie and criticised his conduct by accusing him of playing within the letter of the law but without adhering to certain standards of sportsmanship and professionalism.

“Maybe you could say he didn’t hit me deliberately,” said Djokovic at the time. “I don’t know if he saw me. I mean, you can always see where the player is positioned on the court. It was not so much maybe about that, but it was maybe a combination of things.

“He was doing all the things that we’re 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 is not fair play, it’s not how we treat each other.”

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Norrie has since confirmed that he and Djokovic are on good terms again and will be looking to put their brief feud behind them after holding discussions in private, with the pair having initially been relatively friendly prior to the Italian Open.

“We are good,” said Norrie in an interview with The Times. “We talked. We are fine now. At the end of the day, he won.”

Norrie went on to reflect on the elements of Djokovic’s game that make him such a difficult opponent to play against, as the Brit found out the hard way when he was beaten by the 36-year-old in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals.

“He’s so difficult,” he explained. “You hit a good shot, right on the line, should be a winner, and he is still bringing it back. So you have another chance and you force it, miss the line by a tiny margin and the point is gone.

“He pushes you more and more to the point you have to hit it perfectly. It’s tough not to overplay when you feel like you have to be perfect. That messes with your concentration and then he’s on you. It’s tough but that’s the challenge.

“I watched the [French Open] final with Casper [Ruud] the other day and the same thing happened. The other guy is playing well, has his chances, but is drawn into overplaying, overpressing. It’s interesting to see how Djokovic does it, the more games against the top players the more you learn.”

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