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Nick Kyrgios at Indian Wells

‘What a joke!’ – Nick Kyrgios suffers Miami meltdown, fumes at court conditions


Nick Kyrgios reignited his emotional antics today in Miami as he began to blow up early at everything from the conditions to the crowd on the Grandstand Stadium while facing Jannik Sinner.

Events started to unravel after Sinner pulled ahead 3-2 in the opening set and Kyrgios began to monologue about conditions at the change of ends.

Specifically, the Australian was ranting about the difference he perceived between playing on Centre Court and on Grandstand.

He said: “Anyone going to tell the players that it’s completely different before the event starts?

“Hey guys just to let you know, Centre Court is completely different to the Grandstand, for some odd reason.

“It may as well be grass and clay, what a joke!”

Kyrgios played his first three matches in Miami on Centre Court before playing on Grandstand today and clearly felt disrupted by the shift.

After the self-conversation, the ATP broadcast brought up the court pace index for each stadium, a measure provided by Hawkeye to indicate court speed.

It showed that on the day Centre Court registered 33.4 and Grandstand 33.5, the most minimal difference.

As mentioned, Kyrgios had been focused in Miami before this encounter with Sinner, his matches having been far from dramatic.

On Friday last week, the day he faced and beat world number seven Andrey Rublev, the 26-year-old received a hefty fine of $25,000 US for throwing his racket and nearly hitting a ball boy in Indian Wells after his quarter-final loss to Rafael Nadal.

Sinner eventually took the opening set 7-3 in a tiebreak, with Kyrgios proceeding to collapse almost to the point of a match default.

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