LONDON (AP) — Nick Kyrgios swore at officials and accused them of “rigging” his first-round match at the Queen’s Club grass-court tournament in his latest outburst.
The outspoken Australian, who went on to win the match, launched an expletive-ridden rant at umpire Fergus Murphy after missing a set point against Roberto Carballes Baena, claiming his Spanish opponent had double-faulted.
After Murphy issued a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct, Kyrgios continued his tirade, saying “it’s a joke, man. It’s a serious joke” and adding: “Like, your hat looks ridiculous, also. It’s not even sunny.”
After another point, Kyrgios said: “The ball was this far out on the second serve. I’m going. I’m not going to give 100% when I’ve got linesmen rigging the game, I don’t want to play.
“You wonder why I don’t try half the time. Literally the set had finished, he double-faulted. Why am I playing at 5-5? Absolute joke.”
Later in the match, Kyrgios then berated himself for hitting a poor lob to gift Carballes Baena a point and made reference to a computer game.
“So lazy, do something, so lazy you are,” he said to himself. “You were playing FIFA until 3 a.m., what do you expect?”
In the final game, Kyrgios — at 40-0 down — began returning from just outside the service line.
He still won 7-6 (4), 6-3.
But he lost his second-round match a few hours later, 6-7(4), 7-6 (3), 7-5 to Felix Auger-Aliassime.
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