Nick Kyrgios claims Stan Wawrinka was aiming to hit him in the head before he delivered that infamous insult that he felt was nothing more than "good old-fashioned trash talk."
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After losing a tight first set through a tie-break in their 2015 Montreal Masters second-round clash, the Australian was serving in the opening game of the second set when the cameras picked him telling the Swiss that his girlfriend at the time had relations with another player.
Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend. Sorry to tell you that mate," he was heard saying.
Kyrgios and Kokkinakis were childhood friends while Wawrinka was in a relationship with WTA star Donna Vekic at the time. The footage of the moment went absolutely viral and many tuned into the match to see what would happen next.
After the incident, the Australian went to turn things around and open a 6-7 (8) 6-3 4-0 lead before the former world No. 3 retired. Following the match, Wawrinka absolutely ripped his rival and demanded "a major action" to be taken.
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I just hope the ATP takes big measures against him. Hes young but thats no excuse ... every match, he behaves very badly," the three-time Grand Slam championsaid at the time.
How Kyrgios feels about the incident now?
"Just good old-fashioned trash talk. That's very good and very necessary in sport," the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up said on The Louis Theroux Podcast.
The Australian was subjected to some pretty harsh criticism and scrutiny at the time over the remark he delivered at Wawrinka. But according to the 29-year-old, there was another side of the story and that there was definitely a reason why he reacted the way he did.
"But I won the match. There's a whole story as to why it came out, but I'm not going to babble on about it. We were just going back and forth, back and forth, and it just... he wasn't really talking stuff but he was trying to hit me in the head with a tennis ball and I was like, 'What's this guy's problem?'" Kyrgios added.
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Kyrgios onwhy he is patient with his comeback and shares 'a mistake' he doesn't want to make
After injuring his knee during the offseason in 2021, the former world No. 13 attempted to play the Australian Open but ended up withdrawing at the last moment and then having surgery. Six months later, he returned to action on the grass courts of Stuttgart, where he lost in the first round.
Shortly after returning in 2023 June, Kyrgios started feeling his wrist. It was another serious injury and he thought it happened because he rushed his body and forced a comeback after his knee surgery. While there was expectation that the 29-year-old would return during the second part of 2024, it didn't happen. And it hasn't because the 2022 Wimbledon finalist wants to play only when he feels he can play without any limitations.
"I could come back now and beat 50 percent of players. But I don't want to do that Because my fans deserve a better version of myself that I am now on the court. I don't want to just participate," Kyrgios said.
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Over the last year, there have been some rumors about the seven-time ATP champion not returning to tennis and retiring. But he has laid those to rest after confirming his participation at the Australian Open. But if he returns and things don't go well, Kyrgios probably won't hesitate to call it a career.
"I look at how Andy Murray's doing it now, and how Rafael is going out, I don't want to be like that either. I don't want to be crawling to the finish line, in a sense. What Andy Murray's achieved in this sport is second to basically no one, like, unless you're Novak, Federer, or Nadal. Like, the next person is Andy Murray. It's like, you've achieved everything, you deserve to go out, I think, a little bit more gracefully than he's done. I think, that the surgeries, the pain, it's just not worth it, in my opinion," the 29-year-old explained.
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Just two seasons ago, the Australian was looking like one of the best players in the game but then two unfortunate setbacks happened. However, he doesn't expect anyone to feel pity for him when he returns.
"I know the world's not going to be nice on me when I come back, they're going to all of a sudden forget that I was out for a year and a half with injuries. They're just going to think that it's Nick Kyrgios that has all the expectation again. So when he loses, it's not OK," Kyrgios noted.
