Australian tennis brat Nick Kyrgios has been fined US$113,000 (NZ$175,00) for his latest tantrum during his second-round match at the Cincinnati Masters on Thursday.
The 24-year-old was hit with five separate unsportsmanlike conduct infractions, one verbal abuse, an audible obscenity and leaving the court during his 6–7, 7–6, 6–2 loss to eighth seed Karen Khachano from Russia.
The drama started when the Canberra native received a time violation and made comments to the chair umpire, Ferguson Murphy, saying the whole thing was "hilarious, bro."
As the match progressed, Kyrgios became more irate, and after losing the second set, he requested a toilet break but instead used the time to smash two racquets in a corridor.
In the third set, he labelled Murphy "the worst f***ing referee ever" after getting a violation code.
After a double-fault handed Khachanov the match and the players shook hands, Kyrgios told Murphy "you're a f***ing tool bro" and appeared to spit in the direction of the umpire.
There were two other incidents during the match. The first was when Kyrgios appeared to deliberately hit the ball in the direction of Murphy, followed by throwing a drink at the umpire's chair.
However, he claimed the bottle "slipped out of his hands".
In addition to the fines, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is looking into the incident further and reserves the right to make additional fines or even levy a suspension on Kyrgios.
He earned US$39,120 (NZ$60,672) for reaching the second round at Cincinnati, and thus took a loss of US$73,880 (NZ$114,583) before expenses.
Earlier this year, the world number 27 was fined after he kicked a bottle and hurled a chair at the Italian Open in May.
In 2016 he received a two-month ban for his behaviour at the Shanghai Masters when his efforts were questioned during defeat by Mischa Zverev.
Newshub.
