We wait and wait for Nick Kyrgios at a press conference, after what happened in his match against Sinner and the Australian played hard to get, but when he did, he didn’t leave a puppet with a head. A press conference so critical of a player is not remembered, not only against a referee, Carlos Bernardesbut also against ATP, which he accuses of not protecting the stars and allowing what is happening. Nick’s words are going to go around the world.
What happened
I got frustrated. Can’t I get frustrated? I think Carlos (Bernardes) doesn’t know how to control the crowd well, from my point of view. Everyone will have their opinion of him. I just think my point penalty was not deserved. I literally told my box that Matthew Reid, a former player, could do the job of chair umpire just as well. If that, at 5-3 in a Miami fourth-round tiebreak with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, deserves a point penalty, you tell me. It’s ridiculous.
If you have asked that Bernardes no longer referee
Who do you think is a good chair umpire? If the whole crowd boo him, being the center of attention, for me, this is not his job. No one in the entire stadium has bought a ticket to see him speak or do what he does. We have Sinner on one side, who is one of the biggest stars in our sport, and me on the other. Many had come to see me, and we have this guy talking and talking. What are you doing?
He is interrupting me, talking to the crowd and what I was asking him was what he was doing. I have never been to a match where people hated a referee so much. Everything originated it himself. It seems that he was upset by what I told him, that the stands did not want him. You can’t be like that if you’re an umpire. Sorry. Now everything is electronic. You don’t actually do anything, other than calling the score. Any fan can do that.
If you expect harsh sanctions from the ATP
I do not think it’s fair. Shapovalov hit a chair umpire in the eye with a ball and was fined 5,000. I throw a racket that nobody hits and they give me 25,000. This is the problem of tennis. What else do I have to do for this sport? Tennis does not protect its stars. The ATP never protects players. I went to see that boy the other day and gave him my racket. That is something that he will remember his whole life, but the ATP does not put that on social networks.
Really, I don’t care. I know I’m a good person, but why would they penalize me today? They are not going to say anything to him because of his lousy arbitration today, which was horrendous. The ATP is not going to do anything to him. No one will write bad articles about it. He will appear in another game and no one will remember how bad he did today. Me, my girlfriend or my team will have to deal with the bad comments and the ATP doesn’t give a shit.
