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'It's bullsh*t': Nick Kyrgios caught in ugly act towards chair umpire

Nick Kyrgios, pictured here in a running battle with Marijana Veljovic at the Australian Open.
Nick Kyrgios had a running battle with Marijana Veljovic at the Australian Open. Image: Getty

Nick Kyrgios came perilously close to copping a game penalty in his win over Ugo Humbert at the Australian Open on Wednesday night.

The mercurial Aussie had a running battle with chair umpire Marijana Veljovic throughout the five-set tussle, which Kyrgios eventually won 5-7 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4.

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Kyrgios was left fuming a number of times throughout the match, with the technology that detects lets on serves appearing to be malfunctioning.

Kyrgios claimed a number of his serves were going well over the net, only for the ‘cyclops’ technology to beep and detect a let.

So the Aussie was fuming when he dropped the first set, smashing his racquet and earning a code violation in the process.

But things got even uglier when he lost the third set, with Veljovic docking Kyrgios a point when he angrily smashed a ball into her umpire’s chair.

After the second code violation, Kyrgios was at risk of earning a game penalty if he erred again.

But Veljovic gave him a huge let-off when he swore while raging at the net technology once again in the fifth set.

“It’s bulls***, look at the score,” Kyrgios said.

“It’s ruining the game. It’s ruining the game.

“You don’t understand it’s f***ing one-all in the fifth set.”

Veljovic could have easily hit Kyrgios with a code violation for the audible obscenities, which would have seen him deducted the whole service game and put him in a whole early in the deciding set.

Nick Kyrgios, pictured here having words with chair umpire Marijana Veljovic about a let call.
Nick Kyrgios reacts as he has words with chair umpire Marijana Veljovic about a let call. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Nick Kyrgios calls for change to net technology

Kyrgios had earlier vented his frustrations to Veljovic about the let farce.

“Turn the machine off, it’s ruining the game, you’ve gotta understand me,” he said.

“It’s missing the net by that much. How do you not understand that? Did you turn it off?

“Turn it off. I’m not playing until you turn it off. It’s this far off the net.”

He then expended in his post-match press conference.

“Having technology like that, you sound like an idiot trying to argue against it,” he said.

“But even when (Humbert) was serving, it was literally this far (gestures with his hands to indicate about 20cm) over the net and the net thing went off.

“I was like there’s no chance this was accurate.

“If you have a device where you can turn down the sensitivities, I just think there’s too many variables.

“I don’t know. I don’t have the solution … maybe they need to upgrade their technology.”

Kyrgios will next meet US Open champion Dominic Thiem for a spot in the last 16.

“I have a lot of respect for him. I think his style of tennis is not easy to play. He's super physical,” he said of Thiem.

“But I'm not even thinking about it. I'm hurting just thinking about playing him right now.”

with AAP

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