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 didn't warrant stronger punishment, complaining to chair umpire Damien Dumusois that Tsitsipas should have been defaulted for it. https://twitter.com/BBCSport/status/1543501043236909056

Nick Kyrgios called ‘evil bully’ by Stefanos Tsitsipas.

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."