Nick Kyrgios made sure he lived up to his bad boy image on Thursday when he smashed a racquet and made a rude gesture at the crowd as he and partner Thanasi Kokkinakis beat the pair of Horacio Zeballos and Marcel Granollers 7-6 (7/4), 6-4. They will now face fellow Australians Matt Ebden and Max Purcell in the final match.
Kyrgios complained about the net cord machine, then pulled out of a service motion at 4-2 in the first set. He also said that the Rod Laver Arena crowd were yelling in between the first and second serves. He flipped a finger at one section of the crowd, threw a ball against a wall and smashed his racquet.
Racquet smash and a 🖕🏻 finger to someone. #Kyrgios #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/g9kyBQfc8Z
— Tennis GIFs 🎾🎥 (@tennis_gifs) January 27, 2022
“When are you going to control the crowd, bro?” he pleaded with the chair umpire, James Keothavong.
“You’re gonna keep letting them scream before I serve? It happened four times that game,” he said.
Earlier, controversy’s favourite child was also embroiled in a spat with New Zealand’s Michael Venus who labelled him an “absolute knob.”
“It felt like a circus out there, not really a tennis match… you know if it’s on the other foot, old mate (Kyrgios) would have flipped his lid,” Venus said on Wednesday.
“They’ll always be his supporters and he’ll spin it in a way that helps him, but at the end of the day he’s an absolute knob,” Venus added.
“You (can) see why he’s never fulfilled his potential and probably never will,” the New Zealander said.
“His maturity level, it’s probably — being generous — about a 10-year-old, it’s at about that level.”
