WIMBLEDON, England — Stefanos Tsitsipas labeled Nick Kyrgios as a “bully” after he was beaten by the Australian in a volatile “circus” of a third-round match at Wimbledon on Saturday.
Kyrgios won 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7) to reach the fourth round at the All England Club for the first time since 2016, but not without three code violations being issued during the match — one on Kyrgios for an audible obscenity and two on Tsitsipas for ball abuse, earning a point penalty.
After the match, the fourth-seeded Tsitsipas said Kyrgios has “an evil side” and must have been “a bully at school” for the way he behaved throughout the match.
“It’s constant bullying; that’s what he does,” Tsitsipas said. “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.”
Responded Kyrgios: “To come in here and say I bullied him, that’s just soft. We’re not cut from the same cloth. I go up against guys who are true competitors. If he’s affected by that today, then that’s what’s holding him back, because someone can just do that and that’s going to throw him off his game like that. I just think it’s soft.”
Much of the drama surrounded an incident at the end of the second set, when Tsitsipas flicked a ball into the corner stands, narrowly missing a spectator.
Kyrgios immediately argued with the umpire, saying Tsitsipas should be defaulted, adding that if he had done it, he would have been thrown out. He then demanded to see a supervisor, but was unhappy with chair umpire Damien Dumusois’ response of a warning.
“What are you talking about, bro?” Kyrgios asked Dumusois. “Bring out more supervisors. I’m not done. Bring ’em all out. I don’t care. … I’m not playing until we get to the bottom of this.”
Tsitsipas later apologized for hitting the ball into the corner.
“Look, I have to say it was really bad from my side,” he said. “I have never done that before, throwing the ball outside the court in that way. I did apologize to the people. I don’t know what went through my head at that time.
“I think, with all the circus show going on the other side of the net, it started to become very tiring in a way. That happened. I didn’t hit any people. It did hit the wall, thank God. For sure I’m never doing that again. It’s my…
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