Nick Kyrgios says umpires need to do more to control crowd noise between serves at the Australian Open, but admits it’s a good sign for the sport that fans are embracing a “different energy”.
Despite falling short during last night’s second-round action, Kyrgios put in a gutsy performance against Russian superstar Daniil Medvedev at Rod Laver Arena.
The Russian world No.2 was forced into a gruelling four-set match, 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 4-6 6-2.
Medvedev during his on-court interview after the win hit out at the fans in attendance for chanting and keeping the noise levels to a high while speaking to US tennis great Jim Courier.
This year’s Australian Open has notably featured many fans chanting “Siu” throughout matches, which Medvedev said has been “disappointing” before suggesting that some of those in attendance “probably have a low IQ”.
Kyrgios revealed during the match that he had asked chair umpire Carlos Bernardes to tell the crowd to “quiet down” during certain moments.
“Yeah, I told the umpire. I also said that in my match against Broady that obviously the media didn’t pick up,” Kyrgios told reporters after the match.
“But I said, you should tell the crowd not to scream out before, whether it’s me — I don’t really care honestly too much if it’s my serve. Obviously big points, no. But if it’s like 40-love, one-up — I told the umpire, ‘tell the crowd to quiet down’.
“My opponent might not like that. I think it’s actually the umpire’s job to control the crowd rather than try to be the star because no one came to watch the umpire play tennis.
“That’s his job to control the crowd and monitor it … a bit of common sense at times, giving someone a time violation at love-40 down is probably not controlling the crowd.
“There are other things you could be doing in monitoring.”
The “Siu” chant taking over at this year’s Australian Open is an imitation of Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo‘s iconic celebration that has gone viral in recent years.
While it may have been a tough environment for Medvedev last night, Kyrgios said it was important to see the crowd embracing a change in atmosphere.
“I thought the atmosphere was awesome. I thought the crowd was like, that’s what sport is,” he added.
“You’ve got the most entertaining player playing in his home slam on Rod Laver. You’d expect the crowd to be like that.
“I can understand it’s a gentleman’s game, but it’s about time that people embraced some sort of different energy in this sport otherwise it will die out. It’s just that simple.”
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