Stefanos Tsitsipas labelled Nick Kyrgios 'evil' and a 'bully' after their fiery third round Wimbledon match.
Kyrgios booked his place in the last-16 after defeating the number four seed, but that far from tells the story.
Tsitsipas and Kyrgios provided the drama at Wimbledon on Saturday
Tsitsipas aimed several balls at his opponent and also hit a ball into the crowd, for which he received a warning.
Kyrgios argued that the Greek player should have been defaulted, something he repeatedly berated the umpire and supervisor about.
The pair shared a brief handshake after the finale, but they traded words in their respective press conferences.
"I wish we could all come together and put a rule in place," said Tsitsipas.
"I don't know. Something about talking. Why would you be talking while you're playing? It makes no sense. You are out there to do your job. Tennis is the most important thing that we are doing out there.
"Every single point that I played today I feel like there was something going on on the other side of the net.
Kyrgios is into the last-16 at Wimbledon after dumping out Kyrgios
"I'm not trying to be distracted by that, because I know it might be intentional. And that's his way of manipulating the opponent and making you feel distracted, in a way.
"There is no other player that does this. There is no other player that is so upset and frustrated all the time with something. It triggers it so easy and so fast.
"I really hope all us players can come up with something and make this a cleaner version of our sport, have this kind of behaviour not accepted, not allowed, not tolerated, and move on better."
Kyrgios was in the ear of the umpire constantly during the match
Tsitsipas, who shared a frosty handshake with his controversial opponent at the end, added: "It's constant bullying, that's what he does. He bullies the opponents.
"He was probably a bully at school himself. I don't like bullies. I don't like people that put other people down.
"He has some good traits in his character, as well. But he also has a very evil side to him, which if it's exposed, it can really do a lot of harm and bad to the people around him.
"The handshake part, 'well deserved, well done for the great match', for sure, I need to congratulate my opponent. It's a thing I have been doing my entire life.
"I have never finished the match and not given my hand to the opponent simply because of his performance.
"But attitude-wise, if there was a handshake for that, I would definitely be walking away from it, and that's how it is. It's not acceptable in any way."
The world number four also admitted to deliberately aiming balls at his Australian opponent.
Tsitsipas labelled Kyrgios a bully after their fiery match
Kyrgios was presented with those comments and replied: "He was the one hitting balls at me, he was the one that hit a spectator, he was the one that smacked it out of the stadium.
"I didn't do anything.
"Apart from me just going back and forth to the umpire for a bit, I did nothing towards Stefanos that was disrespectful, I don't think. I was not drilling him with balls."
Australian Kyrgios faces Brandon Nakashima in the last-16.
No comments:
Post a Comment