Nick Kyrgios has claimed the coach and trainer of Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic threatened to fight him after he and Thanasi Kokkinakis dumped the top seeds from the Australian Open doubles.
The ‘Special Ks’ pulled off a brilliant 7-6 (10-8) 6-3 victory over the Croatian duo, and Olympic gold medallists, in front of a boisterous crowd at Kia Arena on Friday.
Kyrgios and Kokkinakis were typically flamboyant and energetic, hyping up the crowd and celebrating with vigour and, according to Kyrgios, the fiery nature of the clash spilled over into the players’ gym.
“Just letting you know after yesterday’s chop fest in doubles my opponents’ coach and trainer proceeded to threaten to fight in the players gym,” Kyrgios said on Twitter.
“Tennis is a soft soft sport @TKokkinakis all because I moved and hit them with a tennis ball.”
Kokkinakis responded with laughing emojis as he backed up his doubles partner.
“That was crazy!! Mans thought it was @ufc,” he said, quote-tweeting Kyrgios’ original tweet.
Vision on Network Nine of the players’ locker room after the alleged stoush showed an animated Kyrgios shaking his head and talking to his team.
Doubles world No.1 Pavic post-match suggested the boisterous crowd should “show some respect”, echoing singles world No.2 Daniil Medvedev, who had expressed his frustration with noisy local fans after he beat Kyrgios on Thursday night.
“It’s loud. They are pretty loud. Obviously they cheer for Aussies. It wouldn’t hurt them to show some respect to all opponents, to other players,” Pavic said.
“We saw yesterday also with Medvedev how it was.
“So, yeah, I mean, that’s how they are here. We’re used to that. But like I said, yeah, it wouldn’t hurt them to show some respect.”
Kyrgios and Kokkinakis are into the third round, leaving Pavic and Mektic to lick their wounds.
“It looks like just the guys played really well. They’re a nasty team to beat here and that’s it. We just fell short,” Pavic said.
Wimbledon junior doubles champions in 2013, Kyrgios and Kokkinakis will next play either No.15 seeds Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar or German duo Dominik Koepfer and Jan-Lennard Struff for a place in the quarter-finals.
Kim Philby OBE OL
Roar Rookie
Hey James, lol, I was living in France, too at the time. Where were you? I even still have a French newspaper from the Saturday of that final. My son was born in Lyon on that day and I decided to keep the paper ( la Liberation) as a snap shot of the time.... re the two players complaining in Melbourne, I could accept their complaints as long as they then also complained about their own supporters booing and disrupting their opponents. Imagine them playing in the Zagreb invitational and telling their fans off about harassing their Serbian opponents, lol! But it never ever happens... doesn’t matter which sport which country, which nationally.... ( apart from when Lindsey Davenport played Jelena Dokic ). So this just sounds like sour grapes... they should go and make some vinegar.
Brian Westlake
Roar Rookie
It's tennis guest... Rich kids hitting a furry ball across a fence. I don't care if they are Croat/Serb/English/Australian whatever. They deserve to be lambasted at every opportunity. Overpaid elitist twerps
Rob
Guest
Sheek that’s your opinion on Kyrgios and that’s fine. Those with a similar opinion will be left in the past. Kyrgios is fantastic for tennis and anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. You just have to look at how many are tuning in to watch the doubles because of him and Kokkanakis.
Linphoma
Guest
Sheek you are spot on. Watching the Nadal v Mannarino match currently, two neutrals going hammer and tongs, the crowd is respectful to both combatants. Both players have their fans but they are thankfully well-behaved. So much more enjoyable when you can take the breast-beating out and watch what appears to be a changing of the guard. Rafa looks done and Mannarino hasn't raised a sweat after a set.
jameswm
Roar Guru
I’m not disagreeing with any of that.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Again – I never tried to excuse the behaviour and said I didn’t see the match. Stop making things up and trying to draw inferences. You know what they say about assuming…
HR
Roar Rookie
It's entirely self-serving for Putin, no doubt. And likewise for the church - better to align with a despot than to oppose him.
Nick
Guest
One of the problems was also they didn't have linespeople they had the electronic lines. This meant players couldn't hear the "calls" as pointed out by the umpire. I'd much prefer the shouting to the deafening over the top grunts. Don't watch much tennis any more because of it. Did watch a bit of Kyrgios though.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
Medvedev thought that he was being booed and (kind of understandably) got in a $hitty mood because of it. He’s since mellowed out about the crowd generally, but still doesn’t like the bogans deliberately trying to distract during his serve, which is a reasonable complaint. There is nothing wrong with a crowd creating an atmosphere that creates general psychological pressure on a visiting player, but when the crowd start committing specific acts designed to directly interfere with specific individual plays, that’s definitely crossing a line.
Mark
Guest
Not at all. You keep posting that other crowds have behaved poorly so the Croatians are sore losers (your words, in 2 separate posts) for complaining. You’re trying to excuse the crowd behaviour the other night because it has happened elsewhere. That doesn’t or shouldn’t excuse it.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
The Russian Orthodox Church continued to operate under the Soviet regime.
jameswm
Roar Guru
That’s a straw man argument. I didn’t say that.
sheek
Roar Guru
Wow. On face value the only holy value Putin possesses is to himself!
Mark
Guest
Yes I did see the match. And yes the crowd’s behaviour was very poor. It’s not that they were supporting the Aussies, it’s that some of them were going out of their way to put the Croatians off, particularly by making noises as they were attempting to serve. Your whole argument appears to be that other crowds have behaved badly before, so that makes this alright. Or, to use an analogy, OJ Simpson got away with murder, so that absolves other murderers from responsibility. Bad behaviour needs to be called out. There is a line between boisterous and rude, and the other night the Aussie crowd (some of them) clearly crossed it.
HR
Roar Rookie
Putin is a vociferous supporter of the Russian Orthodox church (arguably for geopolitical rather than religious reasons), and the church similarly supports him.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Well, maybe the Soviets.
jameswm
Roar Guru
I was living in France at that time and saw it on tv. What a zoo it was. The point is of course, that hole crowds get boisterous. They are allowed to - to a point.
sheek
Roar Guru
James, Didn't the Russians give up on churches several centuries ago?
JGK
Roar Guru
I was at the 1999 Davis Cup final in Nice. For three days, the French crowd were cheering faults, let alone double faults.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Sheek I did watch the Kyrgios game and didn’t think it was that bad. What did medvedev want - a church?