Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas took their tennis war off the court and into their respective press conferences, standing their ground as each accused the other of being in the wrong during an explosive clash at Wimbledon on Sunday morning (AEST).
Kyrgios won the dramatic third-round clash in four sets after demanding midway through the encounter Tsitsipas be defaulted for hitting a ball into the crowd.
The Aussie refused to play for several minutes as he requested to speak to tournament supervisors, but in the end his rival escaped with a only a point penalty.
Tsitsipas complained to the chair umpire multiple times during the match about Kyrgios' behaviour and even tried to nail him in the body with volleys and smashes to get some sort of revenge.
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Advertise with NZME.The bad blood spilled over into their media conferences, where Tsitsipas accused Kyrgios of being a "bully" and claimed the Canberran had an "evil side" to him.
"You get tired of it. The constant talking. The constant complaining. We're there to play tennis, not to have dialogues," Tsitsipas told reporters.
"It's constant bullying, that's what he does. He bullies the opponents. He was probably a bully at school himself. I don't like bullies. I don't like people that put other people down.
"He has some good traits in his character, as well. But … he also has a very evil side to him, which if it's exposed, it can really do a lot of harm and bad to the people around him."
While he acknowledged he was in the wrong by hitting a ball into the stands after the match was squared at one-set all, the world No. 5 insinuated he was provoked into losing his cool.
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"It (hitting a ball into the crowd) was really bad from my side. For his part, all the circus show going on on the other side of the net started to become very tiring," Tsitsipas said.
"I've never done that before. I did apologise. I don't know what went through my head. It didn't hit any people, thank God. For sure I'm never doing that again. But something created that behaviour."
Asked about intentionally trying to hit Kyrgios on certain points, Tsitsipas added: "This needs to stop. It's not OK. Someone needs to sit down with him and talk. I cannot just sit there and act like a robot.
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Advertise with NZME."There is no other player that does this. There is no other player that is so upset and frustrated all the time with something. I really hope all us players can come up with something and make this a cleaner version of our sport, have this kind of behaviour not tolerated."
'That's just soft': Kyrgios trashes Tsitsipas
Kyrgios fronted the press soon after and was told about Tsitsipas' remarks. He denied being a bully called the fourth seed "soft" for being offended.
"I'm not sure how I was able to bully someone in the third round of Wimbledon. I was just playing tennis," Kyrgios said.
"I don't care. When I'm back home and you see my everyday and who I'm competing with on the basketball court, like, these guys are dogs. The people that I'm playing at Wimbledon … he's that soft.
"To come in here and say I bullied him and stuff, that's just soft. We're not cut from the same cloth.
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Advertise with NZME."If you're affected by that today then that's what's holding him back. Because someone can just do that and that's gonna throw him off his game like that, I just think it's soft."
Kyrgios pointed the finger at Tsitsipas, saying he was to blame for the bad blood on Court 1, and claimed the 23-year-old isn't liked by other players on tour.
"I didn't do anything. I literally did not do a thing," Kyrgios said. "The circus was all him.
"I don't know what to say. I'm not sure how I bullied him. He was the one hitting balls at me, he was the one that hit a spectator.
"Apart from me just going back and forth to the umpire for a bit, I did nothing towards Stefanos today that was disrespectful
"I just think he's making that match about me. He's got some serious issues, serious.
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Advertise with NZME."I'm good in the locker room. I've got many friends, just to let you know. I'm actually one of the most-liked. I'm set.
"He's not liked. Let's just put that there."
Kyrgios also referenced his win over Tsitsipas at a Wimbledon lead-in tournament in Halle a couple of weeks ago, suggesting the young gun should spend more time working on his game than complaining.
"Maybe he should figure out how to beat me. I'd be pretty upset if I lost to someone two weeks in a row as well," Kyrgios said when told Tsitsipas had urged tennis to come together and curb his behaviour.
"Maybe he should figure out how to beat me a couple more times first and then get to that.
"When I played Filip Krajinovic (in round two), he didn't hit a ball at a spectator. I was just wondering why he (Tsitsipas) was still on the court.
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Advertise with NZME."I know that if the roles had been reversed I would have been pulled off that court and defaulted, for sure."
