Wimbledon 2022: After beating Britain’s Paul Jubb 3-6, 6-1, 7-5, 6-7 (3), 7-5 in the first round of the Wimbledon, Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios spat in the direction of a spectator he said was hassling him.
Later, he defended his latest antic, one among the many that has his reputation burnished as Enfant Terrible of contemporary tennis.”I’ve been dealing with hate and negativity for a long time, so I don’t feel like I owed that person anything. Like, he literally came to the match to literally just not even support anyone, really. It was more just to stir up and disrespect. That’s fine,” Kyrgios said.
He went on with his defence.“I don’t go into Argos and just start smashing someone at the counter when they’re doing their job. I’ve never done that in my life. I just think spectators think there’s just no line there any more. They can just say something and they film it and then they laugh about it.”
Australia’s Nick Kyrgios complains about an umpire decision during the singles tennis match against Britain’s Paul Jubb on day two of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
“Someone just yelled out I was shit in the crowd today. Is that normal? No. But it’s happening over and over again. I think it’s a level of respect. Why do they feel that’s acceptable?” he asked.
That was not the only time he lost his cool during the game. The Aussie called one line judge a “snitch”, repeatedly told another to get off court when she made a mistake, and yelped at two line judges when they made rogue calls. “These people are in their 90s, they can’t see the ball,” he yelled.
🗣️ “If they pay me well enough I’ll probably do it.” 😄😄
A cheeky response to suggestions of a future in the commentary box for Nick Kyrgios!
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— Wide World of Sports (@wwos) June 29, 2022
When asked about these incidents in the press conference, he replied:“If I lose a tennis match and it comes down to a call, they’re not getting abused on social media like I have to deal with. My girlfriend deals with hate messages, my family deals with hate messages, I deal with hate messages. For instance that time in Miami where (umpire) Carlos Bernardes did that and the whole match turned. Was he dealing with the repercussions?,” he asked.
“I still deal with that but they’re just out there like nothing happened. They’re back out there refereeing, umpiring, but for me, the hate messages, they carry way more weight than just that. That’s what people don’t understand. It’s not just, ‘He made a bad call’ and I’m just abusing the umpire. I’m frustrated. It’s like, if I lose this match, you have no idea how much abuse I have to go through where the umpires don’t have to go through anything. What do they go through?” he fumed.
He said he has no sympathies for them, unless he had hit them with a serve. “Well yeah, if I hit a 220km/h serve and it hits them, I’m like, ‘Oh sorry, are you OK?’ But if they make a bad call that focused on one line, why would I have sympathy for that? There’s hundreds and thousands of dollars on the line, why would I have sympathy for that? Doesn’t make sense.”
