Nick Kyrgios Accuses Officials of 'Rigging' Match at Queen's Club

Nick Kyrgios swore at officials and accused them of ''rigging'' his first-round match at the Queen's Club grass-court tournament in his latest outburst.
Alex Pantling/Getty Images

LONDON — Nick Kyrgios swore at officials and accused them of ''rigging'' his first-round match at the Queen's Club grass-court tournament in his latest outburst.

The outspoken Australian, who went on to win the match, launched an expletive-ridden rant at umpire Fergus Murphy after missing a set point against Roberto Carballes Baena, claiming his Spanish opponent had double-faulted.

After Murphy issued a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct, Kyrgios continued his tirade, saying ''it's a joke, man. It's a serious joke'' and adding: ''Like, your hat looks ridiculous, also. It's not even sunny.''

After another point, Kyrgios said: ''The ball was this far out on the second serve. I'm going. I'm not going to give 100% when I've got linesmen rigging the game, I don't want to play.

''You wonder why I don't try half the time. Literally the set had finished, he double-faulted. Why am I playing at 5-5? Absolute joke.''

Later in the match, Kyrgios then berated himself for hitting a poor lob to gift Carballes Baena a point and made reference to a computer game.

''So lazy, do something, so lazy you are,'' he said to himself. ''You were playing FIFA until 3 a.m., what do you expect?''

In the final game, Kyrgios—at 40-0 down—began returning from just outside the service line.

He still won 7-6 (4), 6-3.

But he lost his second-round match a few hours later, 6-7(4), 7-6 (3), 7-5 to Felix Auger-Aliassime.


Published