Nick Kyrgios has responded to an unprovoked swipe from the mum of tennis rival Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Julia Apostoli last week came from nowhere to say Kyrgios had played “dirty tennis” during their heated showdown at Wimbledon this year.
In one of the most explosive matches of the year, Kyrgios and Tsitsipas continued to exchange prickly comments for days afterwards following a match where Kyrgios at one point refused to keep playing,
The Greek star, who angrily hit a ball into the Court One crowd, was slapped with an $AUD$14,600 sanction while the Australian was fined nearly $6000 for an audible obscenity.
The pair exchanged insults in their post-match press conferences.
Watch Tennis Live with beIN SPORTS on Kayo. Live Coverage of ATP + WTA Tour Tournaments including Every Finals Match. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
Tsitsipas called his rival a “bully” with an “evil side” to him while Kyrgios rejected the accusations and said the Greek star was “soft”. Kyrgios’ comment was described as “vile” by tennis commentators at the time.
The Aussie star demanded Tsitsipas be defaulted for hitting a ball into the crowd. Tsitsipas also repeatedly tried to hit Kyrgios in the body from close range as he complained to the umpire about his behaviour.
The bitter rivalry is now back making headlines after Apostoli’s claims Kyrgios “ignored the general rule of sports”.
“The only person who confuses Stefanos is Nick Kyrgios,” she told the Greek City Times.
“He is the only one who brings him out of himself.
“In the Wimbledon match, Kyrgios decided to ignore the general rules of sports. The match became very strange and nervous because he was playing ‘dirty’ tennis.
“Stefanos doesn’t play like that. He completely lost his temper due to the behaviour of his opponent and lost the match without being any worse on the court.”
Kyrgios has now fired back with a cheeky barb, sharing a video clip of him executing a clean drop shot winner during the match against Tsitsipas.
He captioned the post: “Dirty tennis”.
The pair don’t look like mending their rift any time soon. Kyrgios leads the head-to-head 4-1.
Tsitsipas initially ripped into Kyrgios when he fronted the media after their grudge match.
“You get tired of it. The constant talking. The constant complaining. We’re there to play tennis, not to have dialogues,” Tsitsipas told reporters.
“It’s constant bullying, that’s what he does. He bullies the opponents. He was probably a bully at school himself. I don’t like bullies. I don’t like people that put other people down.
“He has some good traits in his character, as well. But … he also has a very evil side to him, which if it’s exposed, it can really do a lot of harm and bad to the people around him.”
Asked about intentionally trying to hit Kyrgios on certain points, Tsitsipas added: “This needs to stop. It’s not OK. Someone needs to sit down with him and talk. I cannot just sit there and act like a robot.
“There is no other player that does this. There is no other player that is so upset and frustrated all the time with something. I really hope all us players can come up with something and make this a cleaner version of our sport, have this kind of behaviour not tolerated.”
