‘He has a valid point!’ – Slam winner agrees with Nick Kyrgios’ umpire outrage
After receiving multiple code violations, Andy Roddick claimed that chair umpire Carlos Bernardes “might’ve gotten his feelings hurt” and thinks his “ego was maybe in play” when he penalised Nick Kyrgios.
Australian icon Nick Kyrgios has displayed some excellent tennis at both the Indian Wells Masters and the Miami Open, the ‘Sunshine Double,’ but some of his performances have been marred by on-court disturbances.
Kyrgios started the year in excellent fashion after winning the Australian Open doubles with close friend Thanasi Kokkinakis. He then reached the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells Masters where he lost to 21-time Slam legend Rafael Nadal.
After losing the match against Nadal, Kyrgios slammed his racket into the ground and an unfortunate bounce sent the racket flying in the direction of a ball boy’s head. Kyrgios was subsequently fined a total of $25,000 (£19,000).
At this week’s Miami Open, he remained focused to overcome some tough opponents in World number seven Andrey Rublev, Italian maverick Fabio Fognini and Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.
However, tempers erupted on multiple occasions in his fourth round match against 20-year-old Italian sensation Jannik Sinner, who remained unfazed and displayed a maturity beyond his years.
After airing his displeasure at both the playing surface and the chair umpire Carlos Bernardes, Kyrgios walked a fine line as he was just one code violation away from being defaulted.
In an interview with Tennis Channel, 2003 US Open winner Andy Roddick said “it’s pretty easy, once you have a warning, don’t do anything else that would warrant another warning!
“I actually didn’t disagree with Nick why he got the point penalty in the tiebreaker.
“Him saying, ‘this referee is bad and someone else could do better’, I feel like he has a valid point there. Carlos [Bernardes], who I like, might have gotten his feelings hurt. That doesn’t seem like it’s unsportsmanlike conduct.
“It feels like ego was maybe in play there. But then, it’s not the reason [why] you’re upset, it’s how you react to it. Breaking your racket right in his face when you know the umpire is already ticking quickly, he already wants to give you a warning, he’s motivated, he’s offended.
“Your problem solving is to smash a racket to give him a break, to get down a set and a break. That’s the part where you lose me a little bit.
“You don’t want to hear the opinions but then you do something like that where it’s kind of impossible to lay off and say ‘you know what, that was absolutely not the right thing to do if you wanted to win this tennis match’.”
‘You could do the job of the umpire’ – what was said to my best friend that got me ‘unsportsmanlike code violation’ at 5-3 in the first set tie break. With 100 of thousands of dollars on the line that was the decision he made because the umpires ‘feelings got hurt. GET NEW PEOPLE
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) March 29, 2022
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