Staggering claims about umpire at centre of Nick Kyrgios furore
American tennis great Andy Roddick has criticised Carlos Bernardes for the way the umpire handled an ugly meltdown from Nick Kyrgios at the Miami Open.
Bernardes handed Kyrgios a point penalty and then a game penalty after a number of code violations in his clash with Jannik Sinner on Tuesday.
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Kyrgios was hit with a point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct after saying something to a member of his entourage about Bernardes.
After an argument with the chair umpire about what was said, Kyrgios was then hit with a game penalty for smashing his racquet by the side of the court.
In the aftermath of the ugly scenes, Kyrgios claimed all he said to his entourage was "you could do the job of the umpire."
Speaking on Thursday, Roddick said Kyrgios had every right to be upset about getting a point penalty if that's all he said, suggesting Bernardes' ego may have been hurt.
“I actually didn’t disagree with Nick on why he got the point penalty in the tie-breaker,” Roddick said on the Tennis Channel.
“Him saying, ‘This referee is bad and someone else could do better’, I feel he has a valid point there that Carlos, who I like, might have got his feelings hurt.
“That doesn’t seem like unsportsmanlike conduct. It seems like ego was in play maybe there."
However Roddick was also critical of Kyrgios' actions after the point penalty.
“But then it’s not the reason you’re upset, it’s how you react to it," he added.
“Breaking your racquet right in his face when you know the umpire’s already ticking quickly, he wants to give you a warning, he’s motivated, he’s personally offended.
“And so your problem solving is to smash a racket to give him a break, go down a set and a break. That’s the part where you lose me a little bit.
“You don’t want to hear the opinions but then you do something like that where it’s kind of impossible to lay off and say, that was absolutely not the right thing to do if you wanted to win this tennis match.”
‘You could do the job of the umpire’ - what was said to my best friend that got me ‘unsportsmanlike code violation’ at 5-3 in the first set tie break. With 100 of thousands of dollars on the line that was the decision he made because the umpires ‘feelings got hurt. GET NEW PEOPLE
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) March 29, 2022
Nick Kyrgios cops big fine over Miami Open meltdown
Kyrgios was later fined $US35,000 ($AU47,000) for his behaviour during the fourth-round loss.
But he wasn't in the mood for apologising after exiting the doubles draw on Thursday.
“I just don’t think [Bernardes] controls the crowd well at all,” he told AFP.
“For the point penalty, all I said to my team was that Matthew Reid, an ex-player, could do just as good a job.
"If that’s worth a point penalty at a Masters event, that is ridiculous in my opinion.
“When everyone in the crowd is booing an umpire and he is becoming the centre of attention, that is not his job. No one in the stadium came to see him talk or do what he does.
“You’ve got Jannik Sinner who is one of our greatest stars and, not to toot my horn, the majority of people are there to watch me play.
"And you have a guy talking while I was 40-0 up. He was talking. I was like ‘what are you doing?’ The crowd actually hated him that much they told him to be quiet.
“If you are getting booed by the crowd you are not doing a good job. He made it about himself and apparently his feelings were hurt from what I said and the crowd said.
"You can’t be like that if you’re an umpire.”
The ATP said Kyrgios was fined $5000 for audible obscenity, $10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct and $20,000 for verbal abuse.
with AAP
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