In his first Wimbledon match in four years, Australia’s Nick Kyrgios berated and swore at an umpire during the second set of his first-round doubles loss on Wednesday.
After his serve was broken to begin the second set of Kyrgios and Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik’s 6-3, 6-4 loss to Croatia’s Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador, an umpire drew Kyrgios’ ire when he began talking to the Aussie while he was sitting on the sideline during a changeover.
“Honestly, at this point you can fine me, I honestly don’t even care,” Kyrgios replied. “Honestly you can fine me. I don’t give a s—. All these rules are so dumb anyway.”
Kyrgios, 31, has a history of fines, including at Wimbledon. The 2022 Australian Open champion was fined three times, twice for swearing and once for spitting towards a spectator, during his run to the Wimbledon championship match, which he lost to Novak Djokovic, in his last appearance at the All England Club in 2022.
Since the end of 2022, he’s been plagued by injuries, limited to four total grand slam appearances, three of them only in doubles competition. He hasn’t made it past the first round of a major since his quarterfinal run at the 2022 U.S. Open, making his fourth consecutive first-round exit Tuesday.
–Field Level Media
