A bemused Nick Kyrgios was forced to explain his altercation with the chair umpire in regards to fan behaviour, claiming that a ‘drunk’ fan’s apparent support for him was no excuse for her behaviour.
At one point during the third set, Kyrgios complained at length about a fan repeatedly interacting with him – saying “she’s drunk out of her mind,” before describing her as “the one who looks like she’s had 700 drinks.”
While the situation clearly annoyed Kyrgios, he stopped well short of claiming that incident had played a part in his four-set defeat to Novak Djokovic.
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“I wouldn’t say she cost me the game, but like, I’m playing a Wimbledon final against probably one of the best players of all time,” he said afterwards.
“I don’t need someone absolutely smashed talking to me, point in, point out.”
Kyrgios said he was all for having a great time, but that constantly speaking between first and second serves to him was becoming grating.
“I’ve been on a couple of nights out in my life and I knew that she’d had too many,” he said to laughter from the press pack.
“I told the umpire ‘she’s speaking to me a lot and she’s drunk, what are you going to do about it?'”
The 27-year-old said that he wanted the spectator to either be given some water or removed. He was given a code violation during the incident.
It was a rare sour note in what was a fantastic performance by both men – Kyrgios threw everything at the top seed, but Djokovic repeatedly rose to the challenge as the match went on.
As the press conference continued, Kyrgios was then told that the woman claimed she’d only had two drinks, and was cheering for the Aussie the whole time.
“That doesn’t make it OK to start talking to Nick Kyrgios who’s playing a final of Wimbledon, middle of the point – why are you trying to make that OK?” he said before moving on to another question.
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