Nick Kyrgios has been knocked out of Wimbledon in the fourth round, going down to French player Richard Gasquet in a characteristically volatile match that saw him exchanging heated words with his support team, an umpire and a member of the crowd.
The young player started strong, but fell behind in the second set, at one point being booed by the crowd, as commentators accused him of deliberately “tanking” the game when the score was 5-0.
Though his performance improved, he eventually succumbed 7-5, 6-1, 6-7 (9-7) 7-6 (8-6). “So dumb, so dumb”, he was heard saying, and during a changeover, he muttered “serving so bad … oh my god.”
Some seemingly faulty racquet stringing also got on his nerves. “Thanks, you guys, thanks,” he was heard telling his support staff at one point.
“I asked for one thing. One thing.”
“I asked for one thing. One thing.”
“You may as well just leave now, honestly just leave now”, he yelled at members of his team, for reasons that aren’t quite clear. “Why is it different now? I say one thing all week and all of a sudden it’s different now.”
He later told a member of the crowd to “just leave”, and also became furious with umpire James Keothavong after a challenge to one of his shots showed that it had caught the baseline, fuming “this is bullshit, mate.”
During a change-over, Kyrgios appeared to become irritated with a the ref for hurrying him along as he sat on the sideline changing his socks. “Mate if you’re gonna get angry with me for that, that’s another level,” he said.
“Mate, Rafa and stuff take 30 seconds in-between points every time, and all I’m doing is changing my socks,” he continued. When the ref continued to argue, Kyrgios called out to his opponent to Gasquet, who appeared to be okay with the hold-up.
“See? He’s fine,” Kyrgios said. “Unbelievable.”
Gasquet also earned a code violation during the match, after breaking a racquet.
Kyrgios has denied any allegations he deliberately “tanked”, telling a post-match press conference:
“Of course I tried. There [were] a lot of ups and downs. It was a tough, tough time, especially when he’s not missing any balls. I’m getting frustrated myself. I feel as if I’m playing not how I should be playing. I’m angry at myself.”
Photo: Ian Walton via Getty Images
