Kyrgios rejoices after winning the last point of a heated match against Tsitsipas, which leads him to the second round. Photo: AP Photo / Alberto Pezzali.
Balls to the public, penalties, expulsion orders, kicks from below, falls and dirty shots. The duel between Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas had all the elements of a circus, in which the Australian (6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-3 and 7-6 (7)) ended up reigning in Wimbledon round of 16 six years later.
The one in Canberra, in a surreal match, on field 1 of the All England Club, ended his friendship with Tsitsipas based on disrespect, complaints and ballsby both players.
Kirgios came to ask for the disqualification of the Greek for throwing a ball into the stands which, fortunately, did not hit anyone. “If I did …” exclaimed the tennis player, who also asked to change a couple of line judges due to failures to call their own balls.
But he wasn’t the only actor in this film. Tsitsipas, which has several plots from the past, as well as impressing the public, he threw several at his rivalintending to beat him up and took a “penalty point” for his continued anger.
The Australian, who he laughed at his rival’s childish annoyanceshe replied ironically apologizing when the ball fell dead in the net and mocking the situation.
The game, the result, was almost the last. After a first set in which Kyrgios was superior, his own problems led him to lose the “tie break”. From there he raised the bar, completing two incredible sets, a sign of how focused he is, and that the nine games he won on this surface before Wimbledon are no coincidence.
This is the time you enjoy the season the most and he knows. In order not to disappoint, the fourth set, already with the roof closed and with the pitch blown up, due to all the people who came after finishing Rafael Nadal’s match, it was decided in the ‘tie break’.
With continuous back and forth, the tiebreaker could have fallen on both sides, with Kyrgios saving a set point and Tsitsipas a match point. But with the score of 8-7 in favor of Canberra, Kyrgios throws a drop that the Greek cannot reach.
Kyrgios returns to the round of 16 in his favorite tournament since 2016 and will play the passage to the quarter-finals, a group in which he was only in 2014, against the American Brandon Nakashima.
The anger continued off the lawn
“I have a lot of respect for him. What happens on the pitch stays on the pitch. I love him very much, I am very attached to his brother,” Kyrgios said in front of the microphones of a presumed hot press conference. .
But that atmosphere was experienced only when it was time to speak for Tsitsipas, who had the illusion of continuing to advance at Wimbledon but could not reach the second week of life.
“In a way it looked like a circus. You get tired of this. The constant conversations. The constant complaints. We are here to play tennis, not to talk,” complained the Greek, with some self-criticism.
Tsitsipas, calmer at a press conference, apologized for his blow to the audience. Photo: Capture TV.
After hitting the crowd, Kyrgios said, “I’ve never done this before. I apologized. I don’t know what went through my mind. I didn’t hit anyone, I hit the wall, thank God. I’m sure that I will not do that anymore”.
And in the end he threw everything against the Australian: “He is a constant bully. He intimidates his opponents. He was probably also a bully at school … I don’t like bullies. He has a very evil side.”
Source: EFE
Source: Clarin
