Swearing Aussie’s ‘rat’ jibe at official
AUSTRALIAN bad boy Nick Kyrgios played true to form yesterday by arguing with the umpire after he was penalised for swearing.
The Number 15 seed was given a code violation after a lineman reported ‘audible obscenity’ during his comfortable secondround victory over Robin Haase of the Netherlands.
Visibly annoyed, the 23-year-old player told the chair umpire it wasn’t the linesman’s job to ‘rat’ on him. But the ruling stood and could cost him a hefty penalty.
Kyrgios has been repeatedly disqualified, fined and warned for obscenity in recent years and earlier in yesterday’s match had argued with the umpire over a foot-fault ruling.
But he also won plaudits in his first-round match on Monday after stopping to comfort a tearful ball girl who had been struck by one of his thunderbolt serves. Wimbledon’s first conduct penalty this year was a £1,500 penalty imposed on Latvian Ernests Gulbis for ‘unsportsmanlike conduct’ during his second-round win over Briton Jay Clarke on Tuesday.
He called the umpire ‘stupid’ and told spectators to shut up.