Can Kyrgios pass Nadal to pinch a place in the final?
Nick kyrgios admitted last night it had been hard to focus on the biggest match of his career with allegations that he assaulted his ex-girlfriend hanging over him.
Despite his off- court woes, the Australian, who is due before magistrates in canberra next month, sailed into the Wimbledon semi-finals.
He beat chile’s cristian Garin in straight sets and will play Rafael Nadal on Friday for a place in the final. Nadal, 36, fought through an abdominal injury to see off American Taylor Fritz in a five-set thriller.
After his win, kyrgios, 27, admitted the threat of the common assault charge, which carries a sentence of up to two years in jail, had affected him.
‘i’m only human,’ he said. ‘Obviously i read about it and obviously everyone else was asking questions. it was hard. it was hard to kind of just focus on kind of the mission at hand.’ He added that he was proud of himself for performing on the day, and for overcoming previous mental health problems, to secure his first ever semi-final place at a grand slam.
kyrgios refused to be drawn on the allegation that he assaulted chiara Passari, 23, during their relationship last year.
He said that he wanted to tell his side of the story after the allegations emerged on Tuesday but could not for legal reasons.
‘i have a lot of thoughts, a lot of things i want to say, kind of my side about it,’ he said. ‘Obviously i’ve been advised by my lawyers that i’m unable to say anything at this time.’
On instagram, Miss Passari said she had reported the alleged assault – she claims she was ‘grabbed’ by kyrgios – to police in December and had nothing to do with the charges emerging only on Tuesday. Despite the allegations, kyrgios had the crowd’s support – with the packed court No 1 giving him a standing ovation as he won.
The hot-headed star, who has been fined thousands of pounds for bad behaviour during the championships, had earlier been seen berating his player’s box – which included current girlfriend costeen Hatzi, 21, his sister and father – for apparently not offering enough support.
‘After everything... i do expect more. Something... something! There’s five of you. Five of you,’ he pleaded at one point.
Earlier in the day Miss Hatzi, a Sydney-based blogger, was seen playfully pinching his cheeks during a practice session.