Nick Kyrgios has had another monumental meltdown, losing his cool, then a point, then a game and eventually this round of 16 match at the Miami Open.
Against the almost saintly Jannik Sinner, the Australian let himself down once more with a display of garrulous petulance and contemptuous treatment of umpire Carlos Bernardes.
Kyrgios was just one more outburst from being defaulted in the match but after being penalised a game at the start of the second set he went down snarling anyway, 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.
But Kyrgios insisted Bernardes should bear some blame for what transpired.
“When everyone in that crowd is booing an umpire, and he’s becoming the centre of attention, that’s not his job,” Kyrgios said.
“Because no one in that entire stadium bought a ticket to see him talk or play or do what he does.”
It was the second tournament in a row in the US in which the volcanic 26-year-old has exited amid sorry scenes.
It followed on from the $US25,000 ($A33,000) fine the serial offender was issued when his racquet almost hit a ball boy after he smashed it into the court while yelling an obscenity following his Indian Wells loss to Rafael Nadal.
His latest exit exhibited all the hallmarks of Kyrgios once again feeling the world was against him, as he moaned from the start about the state of the court, about the “worst” US crowd and about Brazilian umpire Bernardes being unable to control proceedings.
“He’s not even going to get a slap on the wrist for his dreadful umpiring performance today,” Kyrgios said.
“He was horrendous.”
The sadness, as so often, was that his behaviour spoiled some thrilling tennis with the 20-year-old Sinner working wonders to blank out the noise surrounding Kyrgios and to play a consummate match.
Perhaps the Italian’s composure as clearly the better player on the day only irritated Kyrgios further as he launched a familiar war with the crowd, muttering at one changeover: “The crowd’s the worst, everyone’s just the worst.”
It was, to be fair to Kyrgios, a bit of a circus, with one spectator making his way onto the court to try to get a selfie, but he only succeeded in adding fuel to the fire.
Being outplayed in the opening set tiebreaker, Kyrgios turned his attack to Bernardes, telling him: “You have absolutely no idea how to control this crowd, pretty sad…”
When Kyrgios started talking further about him, Bernardes gave him his second code violation, which meant a point penalty that gave Sinner a set point.
At the end of the set which the Australian conceded with a double fault, Kyrgios screamed wildly at the umpire, asking how it could have been unsportsmanlike conduct as he was talking only to a friend in the crowd.
To which Bernardes, by now understandably growing more irritated, said: “You were talking about me.”
Kyrgios responded by asking to speak to a tournament official before he smashed his racquet several times against his bag and on to the hardcourt — with Bernardes this time issuing a game penalty.
It was a decisive moment as Kyrgios was to serve in the opening game of the second stanza.
“I got frustrated,” Kyrgios said.
“Can I not get frustrated?”
It marked a dispiriting end to the Australian men’s singles challenge in Miami.
Thanasi Kokkinakis, who’d had such an excellent tournament, went out 6-4 6-4 to second-seeded Alexander Zverev while suffering what appeared to be an injury to his right shoulder.
Despite their singles’ ills, Kyrgios and Kokkinakis teamed up later in the day to steamroll their way into the doubles semi-finals by dispatching third-seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 7-5 6-2.
The Special K’s — the Australian Open doubles champions — are now 9-1 in 2022.
© AAP
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