Nick Kyrgios calls Dawn Fraser 'racist' after Queen's birthday honour

Nick Kyrgios has reignited his feud with the Australian Olympic legend Dawn Fraser, labelling her “racist” in a tweet after she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s birthday honours.

Fraser, 80, who won four Olympic swimming gold medals, was recognised for her services to sport.

“I’m so very grateful that I’m Australian and I’ve been given this honour by the governor general, it’s just absolutely fantastic,” she said on Sunrise on the Seven Network.

The program tweeted the clip but it was retweeted by Kyrgios with the message “Racist tho”.

The row dates back to 2015 when the tennis player was castigated by Fraser in an interview on the Nine Network after his ignominious round-of-16 exit from Wimbledon.

Fraser had also criticised Kyrgios’ fellow Australian player Bernard Tomic after his savaging of Tennis Australia and dumping from the Davis Cup team.

Kyrgios, 23, was born in Canberra and is of Greek/Malaysian descent, while Tomic is German-born, with a Croatian father and Bosnian mother.

Fraser said in that 2015 interview: “They should be setting a better example for the younger generation of this country, a great country of ours. If they don’t like it, go back to where their fathers or their parents came from. We don’t need them here in this country if they act like that.”

Fraser later apologised for “any comments ... which many have caused offence”, insisting she was not racist and that the message was delivered “purely on a sporting level” and not as an attack on Kyrgios’ ethnicity.