Nick Kyrgios has claimed Stan Wawrinka once tried to strike him with a tennis ball after their infamous row unfolded at the Canada Open. In one of the most controversial moments of his tennis career, Krygios ignited a bitter row with the three-time Major winner in 2015 after taunting him about his girlfriend during a second round match.
Kyrgios, who has been sidelined with injury for the past 18 months, discussed his feud with Wawrinka on ‘The Louis Theroux Podcast’ as he opened up on his wild journey in tennis.
And the 29-year-old defended his actions, insisting it was a normal occurrence in professional sport for opposing players to insult each other to gain a psychological edge.
“Just good old fashioned trash talk. That’s very good and very necessary in sport,” Kyrgios said, when asked about the incident.
When Theroux reminded Kyrgios of the £7,707 ($10,000) fine he received for his vulgar remarks, the Australian suggested he had been provoked and accused Wawrinka, now 39, of purposely attempting to hit him with the ball.
“But I won the match. There’s a whole story as to why it came out, but I’m not going to babble on about it. We were just going back and forth, back and forth,” Kyrgios added. “He [Wawrinka] wasn’t really talking s***, but he was trying to hit me in the head with a tennis ball and I was like ‘What’s this guy’s problem?'”
The controversy arose in 2015 when Kyrgios tried to get under Wawrinka’s skin by talking about Donna Vekic, who was his partner at the time. While they were on the court, he claimed that Thanasi Kokkinakis – his doubles partner and close friend – had previously engaged in an alleged romantic encounter with Vekic.
While Wawrinka didn’t hear the taunt, microphones picked up on Kyrgios, who could be heard saying: “Kokkinakis b****d your girlfriend. Sorry to tell you that mate.”
Vekic, who did not confirm or deny what Kyrgios said, later said: “I haven’t spoken to Kyrgios. But it’s a very disappointing thing to be happening in our sport.”
As for Wawrinka, the former world No 3 later retired from the match and launched a scathing attack on the Australian, who was 20 at the time.
“He’s young but that’s no excuse… every match, he behaves very badly,” Wawrinka told reporters in French. “The problem is he doesn’t just behave badly towards himself, he behaves 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.”
Eventually, Kyrgios made an apology to his rival both in private and public after receiving criticism from his fellow pros such as Novak Djokovic. He described his remarks as being made “in the heat of the moment”.
It seems Wawrinka isn’t quite ready to leave their feud in the past, though, after the Swiss veteran named Kyrgios as the biggest trashtalker he has come across.
To nobody’s surprise, Kyrgios responded on social media and his response was blunt yet succinct, writing “Yep” via his X account.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk