Nick Kyrgios Tells Fans He Doesn’t Owe ‘Em Shit After On-Court Meltdown

Nick Kyrgios is copping a bit of heat from the press today after he crashed out against German qualifier Mischa Zverev at the Shanghai Masters – in which he argued with spectators, appeared not to try and received a code violation for swearing at a heckler – but he’s unapologetic in that classic Kyrgios way, telling fans he doesn’t actually owe them anything.

“That’s your choice. You want to buy a ticket, come and watch me? You know I’m unpredictable. It’s your choice,” said Kyrgios. “I don’t owe you anything. Doesn’t affect how I sleep at night.”

It was clear for the duration of the game that Kyrgios didn’t really want to be there. He was hitting easy drop shots, complaining about the length of changeovers and serving at half-pace for basically the whole time. When one fan yelled at home from the stands about his performance, he shot back. “Go home then,” he retorted. “I didn’t ask you to come.” 
When asked whether he knew why the crowd was booing him, he shrugged it off.

Not at all. I feel like if they knew what they were talking about they’d be on the tennis court and being successful, as well. No, I can’t really understand it at all. They don’t know what I’m going through, so, no, I don’t understand it. Do you? […] What does that even mean? I’m good at hitting a tennis ball over the net. Like, big deal. I don’t owe them anything. It’s like it’s my choice.

He did apologise to fans a couple of hours later, via Twitter:

For his part, Zverev was pretty gracious about the whole thing. He was asked whether it was the most bizarre match of his career.

Bizarre? What’s the definition of bizarre? I don’t know. But that was definitely a match that I did not expect was gonna go that way, because I know he’s a great player, played really well last week, but it happened to be a little easier than I expected. […] Would Federer behave like that? Probably not, but [Kyrgios] is a creative mind, so that’s why it’s up to him how to behave, and he’s top 15, 16 in the world, so he’s doing something right on the court, and especially coming back from a week in Tokyo where he played phenomenal tennis.
 
Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: Getty Images / Lintao Zhang.

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