Nick Kyrgios is showing no signs of worry as the Australian Olympic Chief warns that he may not be selected for the Rio Games due to his behavior.
The world No.20 has been put on a ‘behavior watch’ by Olympic official Kitty Chiller. Kyrgios has a reputation of being the ‘bad boy’ of tennis following a series of high profile incidents on the ATP Tour. Last year he received a hefty fine as well as a six-month suspended sentence for making remarks about Stan Wawrinka’s girlfriend during their match at the Montreal Masters. The 21-year-old has also been caught up in several heated discussions with the umpires during matches this year.
Kyrgios isn’t the only player on the Olympic watch list. Another player facing the possibility of not being selected for the Olympics is world No.22 Bernard Tomic. Tomic has been accused of tanking during his loss to Fabio Fognini at last week’s Madrid Masters. Facing a match point, the despondent 23-year-old was holding his racket the wrong way as Fognini took the match with ease.
Tomic – ‘I don’t care about that match point – would you care if you were 23 and worth over $10 million?’ pic.twitter.com/X8dTXXu4al
— Oddschecker Au (@OddscheckerAu) 5 May 2016
The controversy intensified when Tomic said after the match that he wasn’t worried because ‘he is worth $10 million’.
The behavior of Tomic infuriated Olympic chief Chiller, who called his actions ‘appalling’. Despite Chiller’s condemnation, Kyrgios has jumped to the defense of his teammate. The Australian spoke about the incident following his first round win over Salvatore Caruso at the Rome Masters on Monday.
“I think, with Bernard’s case with that match point – I mean, it’s not easy playing Fabio (Fognini) on clay. It’s Bernard’s least preferred surface. Kyrgios said about the Madrid incident.
“I’m sure he competed nearly every other point in the match.
“I don’t really know what he was doing, but that one point he gets scorched for when he probably tried his heart out the rest of the match.”
Whilst supporting Tomic, Kyrgios has said that athletes should have their behavior monitored if they want to participate in one of the biggest sporting events in the world. Discussing the possibility that both he and Tomic could be cut from the Olympic squad, the world No.20 is refusing to let the threat bother him.
“If you don’t want to pick me or Bernard, you know, there are plenty of others you can pick to represent your country as well.” Kyrgios said.
“ If you don’t want two of the best players in Australia to represent your country, so be it.”
If the troublesome pair are not selected for the Rio Olympics, Australia currently has three other players ranked inside the top 100 (No.62 John Millman, No.89 Jordan Thompson and No.97 Sam Groth).
