Nick Kyrgios courted controversy despite the fact that he won his latest match at the 2022 Halle Open.
Looking to reach the quarterfinal at the ATP 500 event, he faced Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas, who is not fond of grass and had lost twice to him in the last two head-to-head matches. Kygrios was the favorite to win the match again.
But despite saving five set points in the first set, it was Tsitsipas who drew first blood by winning the opening set with a crucial break, 7-5. Kyrgios managed to up the ante in the second set by breaking his opponent multiple times to level the match at 6-2.
But the second set will be remembered for a rather rare moment when Kyrgios received a time violation from the chair umpire. The Australian is usually one of the fastest players on Tour when it comes to playing points.
When Tsitsipas was serving and leading 30-0 in the third game, Kyrgios received a time violation as it appeared that his opponent was ready to serve and the umpire judged that he took far too much time before the point.
Kyrgios can be seen loitering and picking his towel to rub himself, something that tennis players tend to do on the court. The Aussie had a different opinion, however, as he claimed that he usually needed to wait for his opponents and made a direct reference to how he used to wait for Rafael Nadal before serving during their matches.
"This happens every match, I waited so many times for Rafa."
Kyrgios did not let the moment affect his performance. He won the third set 6-4 to improve on his great record over Tsitsipas. He will play for a spot in the semifinal for a second successive tournament after reaching the last four in Stuttgart this past week.