Chris Waters - Oi Nick Kyrgios; clean up your act or get out of tennis

FOR REASONS that are neither relevant nor interesting, I found myself watching a tennis match the other day from the Cincinnati Masters involving the Australian player Nick Kyrgios.
Nick Kyrgios is the bad boy of tennis (Picture: Getty Images)Nick Kyrgios is the bad boy of tennis (Picture: Getty Images)
Nick Kyrgios is the bad boy of tennis (Picture: Getty Images)

I don’t particularly like tennis, and I was only faintly aware of Kyrgios, whom I’d heard from somewhere had a bit of a reputation for poor on-court behaviour.

Over the course of the next hour or so, as he lost to the Russian, Karen Khachanov, I saw exactly why this was as Kyrgios carried on in a fashion that put me in mind of a lunatic handed free rein of the asylum.

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It was a veritable stream of tantrums, chuntering, verbal abuse, court violations and so on, much to the amusement of some halfwits in the crowd, who seemed to find it such a hoot that it no doubt spurred Kyrgios on even more.

Nick Kyrgios of Australia celebrates victory during his Men's Singles second round match against Antoine Hoang of France on day four of the 2019 US Open. (Picture: Elsa/Getty Images)Nick Kyrgios of Australia celebrates victory during his Men's Singles second round match against Antoine Hoang of France on day four of the 2019 US Open. (Picture: Elsa/Getty Images)
Nick Kyrgios of Australia celebrates victory during his Men's Singles second round match against Antoine Hoang of France on day four of the 2019 US Open. (Picture: Elsa/Getty Images)

Last week, I notice that he was at it again, playing up during the US Open.

No game passes by, it would seem, without some sort of flare-up, some sort of controversy, to the extent that he makes John McEnroe look like John the Baptist.

Although fined $AU167,000 for his Cincinnati outburst, it is high time that the ATP, the game’s governing body, came down much harder on Kyrgios and his embarrassing antics.

He should clean up his act – or be kicked out for good.

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