Nick Kyrgios Blasts Australian Open Chair Umpire, And Rightly So, For Being Called For Time Violation After His Hand Started Bleeding

nick kyrgios australian open

Getty Image / Mike Owen


Love him or hate him, Nick Kyrgios is entertaining. He’s a one of a kind player and person, wears his emotions on his sleeve, to put it lightly, and never holds back when it comes to voicing his opinion. During his third-round match at the Australian Open on Saturday, it was the chair umpire that caught all the smoke from the No. 26 player in the world.

In some instances, Kyrgios may into it with umpires and even fans just to cause a bit of a scene, but on Saturday the Aussie was on the correct side of things.

During the fourth set of his match against Karen Khachanov, Kyrgios dove for a ball and won the point with an impressive shot, but injured his hand and was a bit slow to get up. His hand actually started to bleed a bit and after wiping the blood away with a towel he decided to take the towel to the bench himself rather than give it to a ball person. It’s a pretty normal move, but not according to the chair umpire as he handed him a time violation.

Kyrgios didn’t agree, obviously, and tossed his racket on the court while yelling at the umpire. He even went as far as asking the umpire ‘Are you stupid? Can you not see?’

“There’s blood all over the towel. I told the ball kid not to touch it. That’s all I said.

What are you, stupid? Can you not see? Take it back then. Why do I get a time violation? My hand’s bleeding.”

Kyrgios took maybe an extra 10 seconds to take the towel off the court himself and the umpire slapped him with a time warning; it’s a questionable decision, to say the least. Kyrgios had every right to question the decision.

With all of the Aussie fans in the stands, let’s just say it wasn’t the best of scenes for the umpire.

Kyrgios went on to win the insanely entertaining match 6-2, 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 7-6 (8) after dropping match points in both the third and fourth sets.

Next up for Kyrgios is a match against Rafael Nadal, which is absolutely appointment television.