Nick Kyrgios and tennis rival Stanislas Wawrinka once had to be separated in the locker room after an infamous on-court encounter, a tournament director has revealed. The heated incident occurred during a Rogers Cup match in Montreal in 2015.
In a second round meeting in Canada, Kyrgios was picked up by on-court microphones telling his Swiss opponent that his doubles partner Thanasi Kokkinakis had ‘banged his girlfriend’.
“Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend. Sorry to tell you that mate,” Kyrgios was heard saying. The comment was not heard by Wawrinka during the match, but he was later made aware of the Kyrgios outburst in his post-match press conference.
Eugene Lapierre, the tournament’s director, has since revealed that a ‘furious’ Wawrinka had to be pulled apart from Kyrgios in the locker room after he was told about the incident.
“Wawrinka didn’t hear it, but Nick’s comments were on television because of the microphone on the court,” Lapierre told Journal de Quebec.
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“In addition to the private apology I’ve made, I would like to make a public apology as well. I take full responsibility for my actions and regret what happened.”
He was later fined a total of $35,000 by the ATP Tour, who said the incident reflected ‘poorly’ on the sport.
Now world No. 20, Kyrgios has put many of his on-court misdemeanours behind him and reached the 2022 Wimbledon final in July, only to be denied his first Grand Slam title by the imperious Novak Djokovic at SW19.
He was recently forced to pull out of the Japan Open at the quarter-final stage, but is now an ominous threat in men’s tennis, and will fancy another deep Grand Slam run at his home tournament when the Australian Open gets underway in January.
