British No 1 Cameron Norrie has opened up about his ill-tempered meeting with Novak Djokovic in Rome a fortnight ago, describing the Serbian’s late arrival on court as something “I’ve never seen from any player.”

At their fourth-round meeting in Rome on May 16, Djokovic opted for extra time on the physio’s bench after tweaking something in practice, and thus arrived more than 10 minutes after the scheduled 11am start.

To frustrate Norrie further, Djokovic never apologised for the delay. Telegraph Sport understands that Djokovic received a fine for his tardiness, and that Norrie was furious at the time about what he perceived as a lack of respect.

This fed into an edgy encounter which saw Norrie strike Djokovic on the back of the ankle with a full-blooded overhead smash. After the match – which Norrie lost by a 6-3, 6-4 scoreline – Djokovic complained about his opponent’s behaviour, saying: “He’s allowed to take a medical timeout.”