‘You little black sheep’ – Nick Kyrgios accuses fan in Stuttgart crowd of racism
Nick Kyrgios has accused a fan in the Stuttgart crowd of directing racist slurs at him during his semi-final defeat to Andy Murray.
As Kyrgios’ on-court frustration grew as Murray looked close to his old self, the usual antics slowly emerged.
He smashed his racket and remonstrated with the umpire over line-calls with which he disagreed.
That eventually escalated to an altercation with the crowd for which he received a game penalty.
After the match, though, Kyrgios has explained his side of it, and made allegations of racist abuse.
Using his Instagram account, Kyrgios said: “When is this going to stop? Dealing with racist slurs from the crowd?
“I understand that my behaviour isn’t the best all the time, but ‘you little black sheep’ ‘shut up and play’ – little comments like this are not acceptable.
“When I retaliate to the crowd I get penalised. This is messed up.”
Murray was asked for his observations on the incidents, but he said he was not in a position to hear anything.
Nick Kyrgios says he heard racial slurs from the Stuttgart crowd earlier today. pic.twitter.com/hdBktmz6Yq
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) June 11, 2022
“You expect things to happen against him, so I’m not surprised when they do,” Andy Murray about Nick Kyrgios.
“It was a very frustrating set for him to lose and he broke a racquet. He also had a back and forth with the umpire and something seemed to happen in the crowd.
“But I didn’t really hear anything after the first set.”
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