Cameron Norrie withdraws from Davis Cup qualifier against Japan due to illness

Cameron Norrie will miss Great Britain’s Davis Cup match against Japan because of illness. 

It is another setback for Great Britain before their first-round tie, with Jack Draper already sidelined because of a hip injury. 

With Norrie’s exit, Great Britain will be without any singles player ranked among the world’s top 75 for the qualifier next Friday and Saturday. 

Jan Choinski, currently ranked world No. 180, will replace Norrie in the team. Jacob Fearnley and Billy Harris compete in the singles for Great Britain. 

Not a good start of season for Norrie 

It has been a tough start for the former British No. 1, who was defeated by Matteo Berrettini in the Australian Open’s opening round. The 29-year-old athlete has been dealing with an illness since his appearance at the Auckland Open, where he lost against Facundo Diaz Acosta in the round of 32. 

Norrie admitted after his defeat to Berrettini: “I haven’t been able to prepare as well as I could… I’ve been pretty sick in Auckland, then, I came here. I barely practised. Honestly, I’ve been feeling the ball so well, and pre-season was excellent. It was a bit unfortunate with the timing.” 

The athlete added: “I definitely gave myself the best chance. I just hit the wall after an hour and a bit. I wasn’t able to stay sharp on the court, so it’s a bit disappointing.” 

There was tension during his loss to Diaz Acosta when Norrie received a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct after tossing his racquet into the crowd. 

Reflecting on what happened, Norrie stated: “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… She (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,” he added.