Nick Kyrgios, a Dream and a Nightmare for Wimbledon, Is Winning

He called Tsitsipas “soft” for letting Kyrgios’s conversations with tournament officials get to him.

“We’re not cut from the same cloth,” he said of Tsitsipas. “I go up against guys who are true competitors. If he’s affected by that today, then that’s what’s holding him back, because someone can just do that and that’s going to throw him off his game like that. I just think it’s soft.”

On Sunday, Wimbledon fined Tsitsipas $10,000 and Kyrgios $4,000 for their behavior.

Tsitsipas’s mother is a former pro and his father is a tennis coach who reared his sons on the tennis court from an early age. Kyrgios is of Greek and Malay descent, and his father painted houses for a living.

“I’m good in the locker room,” Kyrgios, now rolling, went on. “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.”

Then, one last dagger.

He said that he did not take the court to make a friend, to compliment his opponents on their play, and that he had no idea what he had done to make Tsitsipas so upset that he barely shook his hand at the end of the match.

Every time he has lost, Kyrgios said, even when he has been thrown out of matches, he has looked his opponent in the eye and told him he was the better man.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/03/sports/tennis/kyrgios-wimbledon.html