"He's brought tennis to the lowest level, he should have been defaulted" - Cash on Kyrgios' behaviour at Wimbledon

Monday, 04 July 2022 at 05:00

Updated at Saturday, 25 January 2025 at 14:07

Kyrgios Nick Wimbledon2022 MartinSidorjak

byErik Virostko

The whole tennis world knows every detail about the third-round match between Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, and former champion Pat Cash shared his opinion.

The Australian fans can be really happy as they have three players in the fourth round of the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. Still, former Australian great and 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash wasn't afraid to share what he thinks about his compatriot Kyrgios and his third-round performance against Tsitsipas.

The match was highly controversial, as Kyrgios asked for his opponent to be defaulted after Tsitsipas hit the ball into the crowd. On the other hand, the Greek player then attempted to hit his opponent. According to Cash, who spoke on BBC Radio, the umpire lost control of the match.

"As it was, the umpire lost control. The ball kids were running across the court as Kyrgios was serving, he didn't slow down for any of that stuff. Tsitsipas got sucked right into it – so it was entertaining and fascinating, but for me it's gone too far now."

"Something's got to be done about it – it's just an absolute circus. Is it entertaining? Yeah, possibly. It's gone to the absolute limit now. The gamesmanship. The abuse he was giving."

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"Tsitsipas would make a line call and he'd go up there and start complaining, he'd be in his face – that's part of gamesmanship, that's the sort of stuff he does and I think there's a limit. I have no problems with a bit of gamesmanship but, when it gets to that level, I think it's just out of control."

Despite being his compatriot, Cash didn't hold back when criticizing Kyrgios. According to the former ATP player, the 2022 Australian Open doubles champion "brought tennis to the lowest level."

"It was absolute mayhem. He's brought tennis to the lowest level I can see as far as gamesmanship, cheating, manipulation, abuse, and aggressive behavior to umpires, to linesmen. He was lucky to even get through the first set. He should have been defaulted in the first set."