He polarizes like no other in the tennis circus. Now the Australian has made his next dropout. In the middle of the match, he made an unmistakable hand gesture in the direction of the audience.
Nick Kyrgios, enfant terrible of professional tennis, has made his next gaffe. In the doubles semifinals at the Australian Open, the 26-year-old and his partner Thanasi Kokkinakis defeated the top doubles Granollers/Zeballos and surprisingly made it into the final. So much for the sporty.
During the match, however, the pugnacious Australian briefly forgot his good upbringing. Once again.
After losing a service game in the second set, he first smashed his racquet and then suddenly gave some fans the middle finger while walking to the bench.
It’s not the first time the tennis bully has misbehaved at this tournament. Two days earlier, he had thrown a ball into the opposing field so violently that it flew into the audience and hit a small boy in the face. He immediately started crying. Kyrgios apologized by gifting the little one his racket.
Complaints from his opponents about Kyrgios’ behavior have also increased in recent days. Among other things, Germany’s double specialist Tim Pütz felt Kyrgios’ unsportsmanlike behavior. After the quarter-final match, Pütz said: “What he does between the first and second serve has nothing to do with entertainment, it has nothing to do with being funny, it’s just unsportsmanlike.”
“Just an absolute idiot”
Pütz’ doubles partner Michael Venus even attested to Kyrgios “the maturity of a 10-year-old. At the end of the day he’s just an absolute idiot”. Kyrgios could not necessarily refute this statement with his recent dropout. But he probably doesn’t care.
The headstrong Kyrgios thinks he is on a mission. The man from Canberra, also referred to as the bad boy of tennis, wants to make his compatriots happy and entertained after the enormous hardships caused by Corona. The arenas are like a cauldron in his matches with Kokkinakis.
On Saturday in the final, Kyrgios/Kokkinakis will meet their compatriots Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell. It will be interesting to see whether the support from the fans will still be as enthusiastic as in previous matches.
