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Nick Kyrgios showed blatant disrespect for the tradition and expected manner in which tennis is generally played during his second-round match against Stanislas Wawrinka in Montreal.
After losing the first set in a tie-break, Kyrgios turned to Wawrinka and said, “Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend, sorry to tell you that mate.”
The 20-year-old was referring to the Swiss dual Grand Slam champion’s girlfriend, 19-year-old Croatian Donna Vekic.
As to whether the Swiss player heard the sledge at the time is unknown, but he certainly found out about it afterwards, taking to Twitter to express his shock and disgust at Kyrgios’ comment.
It tops off a controversial year for the Australian, whose on-court antics – such as signalling out members of the crowd during his Australian Open fourth round match against Andreas Seppi – have landed him in plenty of trouble.
Kyrgios saw people walking out of Hisense Arena and aggressively screamed to them, “Where are you going?”
The young Aussie also caused controversy at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships by threatening to stop playing, smashing rackets, using abusive language and hitting balls out of the court.
He then overshadowed all those moments in his fourth round match against Frenchman Richard Gasquet, seemingly tanking on one of Gasquet’s service games, as he purposely hit balls into the net and walked to the other side of the court while the Frenchman served to him.
Fans were not impressed, with Court 2 erupting in jeers.
It was a tournament marred by controversy for Kyrgios, who should have been proud of a fantastic performance to reach the fourth round at the All England Club, but ended up leaving the tournament amid questions over questions about his mentality.
His Davis Cup showing against Alexandr Nedovyesov further placed his attitude in question, with various mental lapses in an unexpected four-set loss. It was his first match since Wimbledon, and he was unable to produce the form that saw him reach the fourth round two weeks prior.
He stated himself that he was mentally fatigued during the Davis Cup tie, saying that he did not want to be there.
At the beginning of this week, it was announced that the young Australian had signed Australian legend Lleyton Hewitt as a mentor and guidance figure for the US hard court swing, leading into the US Open. It seemed like a masterstroke to improve his attitude, but Hewitt has his work cut out.
Hewitt himself was known for brash behaviour when he first started on tour, with his cry of “Come On!” at inappropriate times annoying opposition players, even resulting in Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela spitting at him in their third-round encounter at the 2005 Australian Open.
Later that tournament, another Argentine, David Nalbandian, questioned Hewitt’s use of the cry when his opponent had hit double faults or made an unforced error, which ultimately changed the way that the dual Grand Slam champion played the game.
Even the great Roger Federer was known for his temper early on in his career. The 17-time Grand Slam champion used to unleash tirades on himself when losing and smashed many rackets throughout his junior career. It took his junior coach to calm him down and establish a mental toughness that made Federer the greatest player the sport has ever seen.
Even with bad tempers, never did these players bring the game into disrepute the way Kyrgios did with what he said to Wawrinka.
Kyrgios has certainly got the talent to become a great of the game – he has beaten Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic over the past year and a half.
However Kyrgios needs to learn that sledging has no place in the game, neither does the lack of respect for a bona fide champion like Wawrinka. The positive is that time is on his side, and he has one of the most mentally tough mentors around in Hewitt.
Hopefully for Nick Kyrgios’ sake he will learn not to sledge and disrespect his opponents, otherwise his career will not be remembered for his talent but for his immaturity.
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