Nick Kyrgios lost his temper again after succumbing to defeat in an extraordinary match at the Miami Open on Tuesday.
The Australian lost 7-6, 6-3 to Yannick Sener in the fourth round match and clashed with referee Carlos Bernardes. Kyrgios started well, forcing his Italian opponent to save break points in back-to-back matches. But he soon vented his frustration on the rooftop, which he thought was playing too slowly, and then on the volume of Bernardes’ walkie-talkie.
“unbelievable!” He screamed while changing the endings towards the end of the first set. “Miami – one of the biggest leagues – and you can’t do your jobs. It’s embarrassing!”
Player 102 then hit his racket as he trailed in the tiebreak and was cleared by a point before committing a double fault to hand the first set to Sinner.
To summarize, Sinner-Kyrgios 5-3 into the tiebreak
Unsportsmanlike behaviour, Kyrgios point penalty
– NK DF at a specific point
– Nagorno-Karabakh shouts at referee Bernardis
– NK breaks racket, match penalty *for serving*
– A fan runs in the stadium to take a selfie
– The sinner did not say a word, leads 7-6 2-0 *– tumcarayol March 29, 2022
Kyrgios was still unhappy at the tackle at the start of the second set.
“What is unsportsmanlike? What is unsportsmanlike?” he told Bernardis repeatedly, before asking to meet the tournament official. The 26-year-old then smashed his racket to the ground again and Bernandez caught him in the match, giving Sinner a break. The Italian never looked back as he sealed a place in the quarter-finals. As if the match wasn’t chaotic enough, a fan ran into the stadium during play to take a selfie with Kyrgios.
Kyrgios seemed to hold no animosity toward Sener, and the duo chatted amicably at the net at the end of the match. However, Kyrgios was in a hurry for the doubles match later in the afternoon and forgot to take a pair of his sneakers that were next to his chair when he left the field.
Tuesday’s match was in stark contrast to Kyrgios’ championship up until that point, during which he appeared to have reined in his notorious temper. Earlier in the week, he spoke about inspiration from Naomi Osaka, who spoke about addressing her mental health.
“I felt like I constantly played so much under stress and negativity that I didn’t really work with pressure anymore,” Kyrgios said. “I couldn’t deal with the negativity. Every day was just constant negativity from you guys, from my family at the end, and eventually from my friends, and from everyone. There wasn’t any positivity, it was just eating me up and I honestly hated my life. It took so long.” …but I’m happy now.”
Earlier in the day Cameron Norrie, playing with a heavy strap on his left leg, was unable to reach heights that swept him to the quarter-finals or better in his last four tournaments.
The British No. 1 failed to create a single break opportunity against Norway’s Casper Ruud until he converted the last three points in the eighth game of the second set, preventing the World No. 8 from exiting the match.
But at that point there was a sense of the inevitable being prolonged and Rudd made no mistake on his second attempt to win 6-3 6-4 in just over an hour and a half.