The third-round match between Nick Kyrgios and Stefan Tsitsipas turned ugly on Saturday. The players went a little too far in defeating each other and are said to have breached the code of conduct.
As a result, the Wimbledon committee decided to reprimand both the players.
Wimbledon fines Krygos and Tsitsipas
Kyrgios is fined $4,000 (£3,300) for an audible obscenity reported by the linesman. At the same time, Tsitsipas was given a $10,000 (£8,250) fine for unsportsmanlike conduct during the game.
Tsitsipas is a young Greek talent who is still eyeing his first grand slam title. Kyrgios, on the other hand, is known for his notoriety on the court. And it was not the first time he had been reprimanded in Wimbledon.
The game started as a tight encounter between two great players. Both sets of players were almost inseparable throughout. Hence a tie-breaker was contested at the end to determine the winner. Tsitsipas emerged victorious in that.
The second set saw Kyrgios make a remarkable comeback in the game. He dominated the best part of the second set. And emerged victorious at the end to level the match at 1-1.
Roller coaster game between Kyrgios and Tsitsipas
The jiggery-pokery between the two players started in the second set, which Kyrgios won. The 4th seeded Greek didn’t take the loss well and was seen hitting the ball in disdain towards the crowd.
Kyrgios decided to make the most of it and appealed to the umpire to default Tsitsipas for his actions. When the umpire left Tsitsipas off after a warning, Kyrgios was heard saying, “Are you dumb?… What are you talking about, bro? Bro, 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.”
The matters escalated when Kyrgios brought out an underarm serve, and Tsitsipas hit the ball in the crowd yet again. Kyrgios almost lost his head over it and once again argued with the umpire. He brought up the incident from 2020 when Novak Djokovic was not allowed to continue a US Open game after he stuck one of the line umpires in the throat.
This appeal was not enough for chair umpire Dumusois, who left Tsitsipas with a warning.
This episode seemed to have perturbed Tsitsipas a lot. If Kyrgios played some of his mind games, then he had definitely succeeded. And the result came in the form of Greek losing the third set by a margin of 6-3.
The fourth set was much tighter in comparison to the previous two. Tsitsipas was leading it comfortably until his Australian counterpart made a remarkable comeback. This set was again pushed to a tie-breaker, and Kyrgios won this time.
Kyrgios won the match 3-1. But the battle was not over in the court.
Tsitsipas calls Kyrgios a “bully”
Later both the players were heard making heinous comments about each other in front of the media.
He bullies the opponents,” said Tsitsipas. “He was probably a bully at school himself. I don’t like bullies… that put other people down.
“I would be pretty upset if I lost to someone two weeks in a row as well,” said Kyrgios, who also beat Tsitsipas in Halle last month and now leads 4-1 in their head-to-head. “Maybe he should figure out how to beat me a couple more times first.”
Kyrgios will play his quarterfinal game on Monday against Nakashima.
