Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios had a minor feud last year after their heated battle at the Wimbledon Championships.
It was a very heated Wimbledon match between Tsitsipas and Kyrgios as the Australian was able to get under the skin of Tsitsipas. A rather competitive player, Tsitsipas is not somebody who is very good at playing those mind games on the court while Kyrgios does it perfectly.
We saw some of that during that match with the Greek at one time hitting a ball dangerously toward the crowd which almost resulted in a default. Kyrgios pushed for it himself but ultimately he got the win the old-fashioned way.
After the match, Tsitsipas accused Kyrgios of playing dirty tennis which the mother of Tsisipas, a former player herself, agreed with. Kyrgios had his own things to say even though he took a graceful approach after the match, he did share his thoughts later on. That was the end for Kyrgios as he moved on saying that Tsitsipas was simply upset that he lost, which might have been true.
The Greek player certainly talked about Kyrgios a few times after that, with fate putting them together as doubles pairing at the Diriyah Tennis Cup in Saudi Arabia at the end of last year. It was a chilly match with not many words spoken between the pair as they lost in the match. It's been 'peaceful' since then but in the newest episode of Break Point, Tsitsipas made some comment that could easily reignite the feud.
He has brought that NBA basketball attitude to tennis. I would describe it as an uneducated approach of playing tennis. But you know tennis is a gentleman’s sport, it’s all about respect. We are not playing basketball. I feel he was trying to destroy my rhythm. He kept putting his towel in my box.
These comments are obviously quite a bit old as they were said months ago during the filming of the TV show when tensions were probably high but even so, Kyrgios is not one to easily forget. He's certainly not a player that will miss out on the chance to speak out against something either. We'll have to wait and see if it happens though.
There was zero respect coming out of my opponent that day. He kept pressing my buttons none stop - and of course I got annoyed. He just loves attention. And if he gets none of that, it is complete destruction.
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