Nick Kyrgios is young and stupid.
He’s an ass.
A sorry ass but nevertheless an ass.
A sledge went awry and suddenly the bad boy of Australian tennis is the scourge of the gallant game.
Australian cricketers, perhaps, could teach the young man the intricacies of gamesmanship.
“Nick, don’t indulge in sledging with your front to the camera specifically with your voice audible to the on-court microphone. We could have easily told you that, mate!”
The insult was grave; it also needlessly involved a third party and a fourth, both of whom had very little to do with the battle in the center.
Kyrgios dragged Wawrinka’s current girlfriend Croatian Donna Vekic and Nick’s compatriot and doubles partner Thanasi Kokkinakis into a sordid war of words.
Wawrinka recently separated from his wife and is now dating Vekic.
Vekic is a younger, blonder version of Maria Sharapova or Caroline Wozniacki or both or so the marketing geniuses at the WTA would have us believe.
She’s currently ranked 127th in the world.
Stan, the Man, was quick to respond to the hothead’s slurs taking to Twitter calling for swift action from the ATP.
The Swiss star revealed that he later confronted the Aussie in the locker room.
He said:
“He tried to avoid me, but I confronted him. I just hope that the ATP will take big measures against him because he’s young maybe, but there’s no excuse. Every match he has problems. Every match he behaves very badly. On top of that the problem is that he doesn’t just behave badly towards himself he behaves very badly towards the people around: the other players, the ball kids, the umpires. I really hope the ATP will take major action against him this time.”
Kokkinakkis was linked to Vekic in 2013 but has laughed off any such rumours of them being a pair except on court.
@everythingtaboo @DonnaVekic hahahhahahahhahahahahahhahaha
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Thanasi Kokkinakis (@TKokkinakis) April 28, 2013Kyrgios was fined $10,000 for his remark by the ATP.
This is the highest fine allowed for an offense for bad behaviour while playing.
Novak Djokovic reacted:
“I think it is very important to keep the fairness in the sport. There is no excuse for what he has said.”
Kyrgios posted an apology on Facebook for his fans:
Members of the Kyrgios family have not made it easy for their starling.
Nill Kyrgios, Nick’s mother, speaking to Fairfax Media, said:
“It’s not a nice thing to say, it’s not, but you can’t always cop it on the chin from other people without retaliating. If you give people lip then you’ve got to receive some back. You know that Stan did say that Nick was faking an injury last time they played and Nick was actually very sick (with asthma). So there was no love lost there to start with. We let it go, we didn’t comment on Stan’s comment. That’s still in Nick’s head, so the minute that Stan starts giving Nick cheek, what do you think will happen? He’ll say whatever comes to his mind that will upset the guy.”
The Greek-Australian’s elder brother Christos was dumped from an interview with Sydney radio station Triple M.
Christos continued to make derogatory remarks about Wawrinka’s love interest Vekic.
The sibling appears to have said that Vekic “loved the ‘kokk’”.
Christos then went onto Facebook to update his online pals.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
“‘So just did a media interview for nick. Said Donna obviously loved the ‘kokk’ they cut my interview and said its the worst thing they have ever heard on air. Ah cheers.”
Friends posted messages laughing at his comment, before Christos responded:
‘Hahahah f**k me who cares if the women likes a root – good on her, jump on the Kokk then on the stanimal IDC!! All I know it Nicholas Hilmy Kyrgios the king fried his ass.’”
In other reports, it is discovered that Kygrios delivered another barb at Wawrinka during the Rogers Cup match that he won.
He added another innuendo saying:
“He’s banging a nineteen-year-old.”
Much as we would all like to believe that these Kyrgios reprehensible actions are aberrations and there will be no such repetition of such obnoxious behaviour or attitude on-court or off, it is hard to believe that the young Australian can be reined in without an older, calming influence on him.
It is also clear that such a service can hardly be expected from his emotional family members who clamber on the train wreck that is Nick Kyrgios at full throttle.
It’s true that family is expected to stand together. But there has to be a line drawn at atrocious behaviour. While the Kygrios contingent is right to point out the history behind the provocation, Nick had no right to embroil Vekic or Thanasi in the drama. His mother and brother may be emotionally and financially invested in Nick’s success or failure in the sport but that does not allow them to dictate terms to the ATP or tennis fans.
Kyrgios was right to issue an apology and pay his fine. No further defense or excuses are needed. Social media fury is short-lived. The Australian has a glittering future awaiting him if he grabs his chances.
Lleyton Hewitt is believed to be mentoring the excitable talent. But is he the best person for the job? Hewitt himself was and is an atypical Aussie believed to be too intense and too much of a scrapper on court.
The question then is:
Who’ll bell the cat?
Make Time For Sports. 
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