Cameron Norrie was involved in a tense altercation after recording his first ATP Tour win since July.
The Brit fought back from a set and a break down to beat Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena 3-6 6-4 6-3 at the Moselle Open in Metz, but things soon got heated in the aftermath.
After Norrie completed his victory, the pair met at the net to shake hands, only for Carballes Baena to then take issue with his opponent.
The Spaniard appeared annoyed with the 29-year-old for using the word ‘Vamos’ to motivate himself at points in the second set whilst trailing in the match, which means ‘Come on’ in Spanish.
Believing this was Norrie’s attempt at playing mind games, a frustrated Carballes Baena brought this up at the net.
He said to his rival: “You’re saying: ‘Come on’ all the time, [while] looking in my face. You didn’t need to do that.”
The Briton seemed unmoved by his Carballes Baena’s argument, as he replied: “A couple of ‘vamos’ and you get p***** off?”
But this did little to calm his opponent down, who then snapped back: “A couple of ‘vamos’? No!
“You said ‘vamos’, looking in my face. You don’t need to do this.”
Norrie then denied the accusation of celebrating in Carballes Baena’s face, as he remained unapologetic about his actions.
The British number two shrugged before responding: “I wouldn’t look in your face. It’s tennis. You’re complaining all the time.”
With Norrie returning to his seat at this point, Carballes Baena refused to drop his argument, as he then walked over to confront his adversary in his chair.
The pair shook hands after the final point, but tensions quickly escalated[/caption]
Carballes Baena took issue by Norrie’s use of the word ‘Vamos’[/caption]
The Spaniard refused to let the topic go[/caption]
The 31-year-old continued to rage: “No, no. Complaining about what? What are you talking [about]?
“You say ‘vamos’, ‘come on’ all the time, looking in my face. What are you doing? Come on!”
Norrie then suggested that he had used the word to motivate himself after a difficult start to the match, as opposed to taunt his rival.
He explained: “I was playing so bad, so I had to fire myself up. Come on.”
With the heated exchange a major talking point after the match, Norrie was later asked to give his side of the story.
In his on-court interview, the world number 57 said: “I was trying to get myself fired up.
“I couldn’t play much worse than I was, and I was trying to get fired up, and he was apparently not happy with me saying ‘vamos’ a couple times. But I stopped doing it, and I started playing better.
“Then I was happy with the way I turned it around, and nice to get a win after an injury.”
Despite the altercation, Norrie also praised his opponent, adding: “He’s a great competitor, Roberto, and he fought really hard today.”
The hard-fought victory saw Norrie mark his first win on the ATP Tour since beating Jozef Kovalik in the first round of the Swedish Open nearly four months ago.
A forearm injury forced the 2022 Wimbledon semi-finalist to miss both the Olympics and the US Open.
He made an encouraging comeback on the Challenger circuit, reaching the quarter finals of the Roanne Open in October.
However, Norrie then suffered first-round exits at the subsequent Stockholm Open, Vienna Open and Paris Masters, before finally stopping the rot against Carballes Baena.
Norrie will now face Bulgarian third seed Grigor Dimitrov in the second round on Wednesday.
