Tsitsipas and Kyrgios
Nick Kyrgios cursed at the Wimbledon chair umpire and asked, “Are you dumb?” He demanded to see a Grand Slam supervisor after questioning why his opponent, Stefanos Tsitsipas, didn't forfeit the match for angrily hitting a ball into the stands after dropping the second set.
Unsatisfied with the response, Kyrgios asked, “What are you talking about, bro?” To which Tsitsipas replied: “Bro, bring out more supervisors. I'm not done. Bring 'em all out. I don't care. I'm not playing until we get to the bottom of this.”
Non-seeded Kyrgios won 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7) to reach the fourth round at the All England Club for the first time since 2016. He was criticized by the No. 4-seeded Tsitsipas for having “a very evil side.”
“It's constant bullying. That's what he does. He bullies the opponents,” said Tsitsipas, the 2021 French Open runner-up, who also lost to Kyrgios on the grass at a tournament in Halle, Germany, last month. “He was probably a bully at school himself. I don't like bullies.”
In the match, there were a total of three code violations called by chair umpire Damien Dumusois, one on Kyrgios for an audible obscenity, and two on Tsitsipas for ball abuse, earning a point penalty.
Told of Tsitsipas' “bully” comment, Kyrgios laughed and shook his head.
“He was the one hitting balls at me. He was the one who hit a spectator. ... I didn't do anything. Apart from me going back and forth with the umpire, I did nothing toward Stefanos today that was disrespectful, I don't think,” Kyrgios said.
“If he's affected by that today, then that's what's holding him back,” Kyrgios said about Tsitsipas. “Because someone can just do that, and that's going to throw him off his game like that? I just think it's soft.”
During the match after Kyrgios broke to grab the second set, Tsitsipas swatted a ball with a backhand into the crowd. The ball appeared to hit a wall, but what wasn't entirely clear was whether it landed on anyone.
Tsitsipas apologized for that afterward, saying it stemmed from frustration created by “all the circus show going on, on the other side of the net.”
“I didn't hit any people. It did hit the wall, thank God,” he said and acknowledged he was trying to hit his foe with some other balls aimed right at his body. “For sure I'm never doing that again. It's my responsibility, for sure.”
That drew just a warning from the umpire, which didn't sit well with Kyrgios.
“You can't hit a ball into the crowd and hit someone and not get defaulted,” Kyrgios said.
Kyrgios is set to face Brandon Nakashima on Monday for a spot in the quarterfinals.
(Inputs from PTI)
