Nick Kyrgios refuses to apologise following latest meltdown after branding umpire ‘absolute clown’ in Miami Open KO
NICK KYRGIOS lost the plot after he crashed out of the Miami Open in the last 16 to Jannik Sinner – then refused to apologise as he doubled down on his fury.
The Australian tennis ace became involved in a blistering slanging match with Brazilian official Carlos Bernardes, whose walkie-talkie went off mid-point in the first set.
Kyrgios was seething with Bernardes, calling him “an absolute clown”.
He then went on to rage: “This is one of the biggest tournaments and you guys can’t do your job. It’s embarrassing.”
Kyrgios also snapped: ”You wonder why no one watches this sport. It’s a laughing stock.”
The ace refused to let his anger lie.
And having already received a code violation for an audible obscenity, Kyrgios was then hit with a point penalty at 5-3 in the first set tie-break for unsportsmanlike conduct.
That was after appearing to TALK with a friend who was sitting court-side.
A game penalty was then issued at the start of the second set after he destroyed his racket.
The 26-year-old, who said earlier this week that he was at “peace” with himself on and off the court, was also enraged with the Brazilian for trying to calm down the crowd after they had been whipped up into a frenzy by the world No102.
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It was chaos on the Grandstand court.
And as the Australian continued to fume, a fan then ran on to the court and managed to get a selfie.
Italian Sinner eventually won 7-6 6-3 to move into the quarter-finals.
And Kyrgios – who sparked engagement rumours this week – reiterated his anger afterwards.
As well as tweeting, fuming Kyrgios told AFP: “I just don’t think [Bernardes] controls the crowd well at all.
“For the point penalty, all I said to my team was that Matthew Reid, an ex-player, could do just as good a job.
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“If that’s worth a point penalty at a Masters event, that is ridiculous in my opinion.
“When everyone in the crowd is booing an umpire and he is becoming the centre of attention, that is not his job.
“No one in the stadium came to see him talk or do what he does.
“You’ve got Jannik Sinner who is one of our greatest stars and, not to toot my horn, the majority of people are there to watch me play.
“And you have a guy talking while I was 40-0 up. He was talking. I was like, ‘What are you doing?’
‘CROWD HATED HIM’
“The crowd actually hated him that much they told him to be quiet.
“If you are getting booed by the crowd you are not doing a good job.
“He made it about himself and apparently his feelings were hurt from what I said and the crowd said. You can’t be like that if you’re an umpire.”
Winner Sinner, who faces Argentine Francisco Cerundolo in the quarters, admitted he wasn’t entirely sure why Kyrgios was so angry – with the Aussie also complaining about the speed of the courts.
The composed 20-year-old Italian said: “Oh, ask him. I mean, I don’t know.
“What I understood, the court there is a little bit different than the centre court.
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“He usually played on the centre court, which he said it was a little bit slower.
“The rest, I didn’t understand. I just tried to stay in my zone, and I think that was the right choice.”