Nick Kyrgios called ‘evil bully’ by Stefanos Tsitsipas after heated encounter

'He was probably a bully at school...'

Stefanos Tsitsipas accused Nick Kyrgios of being "evil" and a "bully" after the Australian came out on top after an explosive encounter at Wimbledon. Kyrgios beat the Greek fourth seed in a heated four-setter on Saturday, where Tsitsipas aimed several shots at his opponent - his former doubles partner - and receive a warning for hitting a ball into the crowd. Kyrgios was furious that the incident wasn't met with stronger punishment, complaining to chair umpire Damien Dumusois that Tsitsipas should have been defaulted for it. https://twitter.com/BBCSport/status/1543501043236909056 Agitated by Kyrgios' repeated complaints and questioning of decisions, Tsitsipas started to lose his cool towards the end of the second set.

Kyrgios had called Dumusois a "disgrace" over a line call and was later given a warning after line judges reported him for swearing on two separate occasions.

Tsitsipas received a point penalty for responding to an underarm serve by smashing a ball into a scoreboard. He said he had been aiming for his opponent's body.

https://twitter.com/Wimbledon/status/1543361384620195840

The pair exchanged a brief handshake at the end, before Tsitsipas gave a frank assessment of his opponent's behaviour after the game.

"He bullies the opponents," he said. "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."

https://twitter.com/SMSTNS/status/1543355794170806275

The comments were later relayed to Kyrgios, who brushed them off.

"He was the one hitting balls at me, he was the one that hit a spectator, he was the one that smacked it out of the stadium," he said.

"I didn't do anything.

"Apart from me just going back and forth to the umpire for a bit, I did nothing towards Stefanos that was disrespectful, I don't think. I was not drilling him with balls."

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