Nick Kyrgios is set to escape punishment regarding suggestions that he failed to try during his fourth-round defeat by Richard Gasquet.
He has been fined $2,000 (£1,295) for an audible obscenity during that match along with another $7,500 (£4,860) for unsportsmanlike conduct when bouncing his racket during his round-three victory over Milos Raonic – making a total $9,500 (£6,000) – but has escaped a possible $20,000 (£12,860) fine for not trying in a match.
His contest with Gasquet was particularly colourful, the Frenchman prevailing in four sets, the second of which Kyrgios lost 6-1 and at times appeared uninterested.
The 20-year-old denied not trying at any point and tournament organisers are not expected to pursue any action against him, despite International Tennis Federation regulations stating “a player shall use his best efforts to win a match when competing in a grand slam tournament”. He eventually succumbed to the Frenchman 7-5, 6-1, 6-7, 7-6.
“I’m getting frustrated myself. I feel as if I’m not playing not how I should be playing. I’m angry at myself,” he said later.
Gasquet, who will play Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals on Wednesday, was also fined for an abuse of rackets and equipment during the match. His flash of temper came after he reacted angrily when losing the third set on a tie break.
Among his bizarre antics in the match, Kyrgios asked Gasquet for permission to change his socks and also cuddled a ball boy in between points. “I just felt like a hug, I guess,” he said.
Kyrgios has split opinion with his entertaining but controversial behaviour at SW19 this year. In the opening round of the tournament he shouted “dirty scum” during the third set of a comfortable victory over Diego Schwartzman. Kyrgios denied directing his outburst at the umpire and insisted he was speaking to himself.
In the aftermath of his defeat to Gasquet he partook in a heated press conference, saying: “You know, I’m not perfect out there. I’m going to have ups and downs. It’s the way you respond from that. I think it takes some serious balls to respond the way I did.”
Controversy followed him to his homeland overnight when the Australian former Olympic swimming champion Dawn Fraser said of Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic, who criticised Tennis Australia and was subsequently dropped from the Davis Cup team: “They should be setting a better example for the younger generation of this country, a great country of ours.”
“If they don’t like it, go back to where their fathers or their parents came from. We don’t need them here in this country if they act like that.”
Fraser later apologised, Kyrgios having described her as “a blatant racist” on his Facebook page.
