Kyrgios hit by assault charge in Australia
When nick Kyrgios joked this week that there was no such thing as bad publicity, he could not have had in mind the latest storm to break around him.
On the eve of his Wimbledon quarter-final this afternoon, it was revealed the Australian is subject of an allegation of domestic abuse. Kyrgios has been asked to attend court next month in his native Canberra, where information will be laid out relating to a charge of common assault being made by former girlfriend Chiara Passari.
The incident is said to have taken place in December last year, according to the Canberra Times. If proven, it carries a maximum of two years’ imprisonment.
his lawyer Jason Moffett told the newspaper: ‘It’s in the context of a domestic relationship. The nature of the allegation is serious and Mr Kyrgios takes the allegation very seriously. Given the matter is before the court he doesn’t have a comment at this stage, but in the fullness of time we will issue a release.’
Kyrgios is believed to have been aware of the likelihood of this becoming public, but not necessarily the timing of it entering the public domain.
A spokesperson for the All england Club declined to comment, but the development was said to have been previously unknown to them.
In terms of his tennis it could hardly be worse timing, as he prepares for his biggest match in more than seven years, when he played in the 2015 Australian Open quarter-finals.
This afternoon he is up against
Chile’s world no 43 Cristian Garin, a player whose most consistent results have come on clay and hard courts.
Kyrgios’s behaviour has already been the subject of controversy here, notably in his matches against Britain’s Paul Jubb and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The latter described him as a bully with an evil side, which Kyrgios denied.
Three other ATP players have faced allegations of domestic abuse in the past two years — Germany’s Alex Zverev, Georgian nikoloz Basilashvili and Brazilian Thiago Seyboth-Wild.
All have strongly denied any guilt. however, the men’s tour last year commissioned a safeguarding report as a result of the publicity. It was concluded last October but has yet to be enshrined in the tour’s rule book.
The Australian now has even more noise to block out as he tries to set up a blockbuster semi-final against old adversary Rafael nadal. The French Open champion faces no 11 seed Taylor Fritz of America in the other quarter-final taking place today.
Kyrgios showed steely discipline on Monday when he came through a five- set test against Brandon nakashima. he needed treatment on a sore right shoulder during the match, but was serving at 137mph by the end. he turned up yesterday afternoon, without commenting, for practice on the All england Club courts.
All things being equal he would be favoured to defeat the 26-yearold Chilean, who is the biggest surprise package among the last eight male survivors.