Nick Kyrgios Under Fire
Australian tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios is under fire again after his latest antics during a match against Stan Wawrinka in the Montreal Masters. While switching sides during the second set, Kyrgios can be heard clearly saying, “Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend. Sorry to tell you that, mate.” Then throughout the match Kyrgios can be heard making comments towards Wawrinka like “banging an 18 year old,” taunting his opponent who is 30.
This refers to Kyrgios’ close friend Thanasi Kokkinakis and Croatian tennis player, Donna Vekic, whom Wawrinka has been rumored to be dating since he split with his wife. Kokkinakis and Vekic, both 19, played doubles together at the Australian Open last year.
http://gty.im/461767408
Kyrgios went on to win the match after Wawrinka retired due to injury in the third set. Immediately after the match, Wawrinka was outraged, confronting Kyrgios over his antics and attacking him in an interview then once again on twitter. Wawrinka remarked on Kyrgios, “Every match he has problems. Every match he behaves very badly. On top of that the problem is that he doesn’t just behave badly towards himself he behaves badly toward the people around, the other players, the ball kids, the umpires.”
http://gty.im/465168951
Wawrinka did not stop there after numerous tweets over the situation, hoping ATP finally takes action on Kyrgios.
Kyrgios, however, was unapologetic for his words, claiming Wawrinka started the war of words. He said, “He was getting a bit lippy with me. Kind of in the heat of the moment. I don’t know. I just said it.”
This is not Kyrgios’ first issue with court conduct nor is this his worst. He has repeatedly acted poorly on the court, most notably in his loss during Wimbledon to Richard Gasquet when he was heard cursing, seen throwing his racket, and hugging a ball boy, showing a complete disrespect to Gasquet.
Suspending Kyrgios over this would be heavy-handed, especially if Wawrinka is not as innocent as he wants everyone to think. It is hard to believe Kyrgios would escalate something so dramatically if he was not provoked, so it seems reasonable to suspect that there is an underlying issue between both players off the court.
Wawrinka has a clean-cut image and never lets his personal issues come up on the court, but Kyrgios accusing him of starting the war of words is something else that points to a conflict, since Kyrgios has never used his words to personally attack another player.
After much pressure from Stan Wawrinka, his coach Magnus Norman, and many people in the tennis world, the ATP fined Nick Kyrgios on Thursday. The amount of the fine is still to be announced, and further details will be released once Kyrgios is notified of the fine. The rulebook allows up to a $10,000 fine for instances of verbal abuse or unsportsmanlike conduct.
