Australia’s Nick Kyrgios is no stranger to controversies and he was involved in another one when the chair umpire appeared to have cautioned him for showing lack of effort in his opening Shanghai Masters match.
Playing against Blaz Klahn, the umpire Damien Dumusois said to the Aussie he was “really borderline”, referring to the effort put in by me on a point. Kyrgios said he “didn’t care” for what the umpire said, and that he had no right to accuse the player of that.
When Kyrgios served an ace at his opponent in at a later time during the match, he sarcastically asked the umpire whether it was “borderline poor” too. The French umpire told him to get on with his game but three aces later, Kyrgios was heard talking to his coaching staff and said:
“When I get aced: very poor, like it’s poor behaviour. But when they get aced: it’s fine right, they walk side to side, it’s fine.”
The Aussie also told the umpire he could lodge a complaint with the ATP office for his comment and added:
“I’m not going to do it, but I’m just saying.”
Kyrgios went on to lose the match in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to crash out of the Shanghai Masters making it the fourth successive year when the Aussie has failed to make it to the round three of the competition.
This was another chapter in a long list of controversies that Kyrgios has been involved in, but more vitally this isn’t the first he has had an issue during the Shanghai Masters.
He had been accused of tanking a match in the 2016 edition of the competition, while pulling out midway during his last year’s encounter in Shanghai.
Interestingly, Kyrgios had been involved in a controversy of a different kind during the 2018 US Open when the umpire Mohamed Lahyani appeared to be egging him on during his second round match. The chair umpire was later suspended.
Meanwhile Roger Federer weighed in on Kyrgios’ behaviour saying he might never reach his full potential.
He said nobody knows what’s Kyrgios’ full potential, including the Aussie himself and reminded the player it could only happen “through understanding work ethic” and other factors.
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