Rafa Nadal's telling response to 'pathetic' Nick Kyrgios outburst

Rafa Nadal has dismissed any feud he has with Nick Kyrgios before going on to comment on his antics during their match at Indian Wells.

Kyrgios left the tennis world stunned on Thursday after unravelling on a number of occasions in the 6-7, 7-5, 4-6 defeat to the World No.4.

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The 26-year-old Aussie had a running battle with chair umpire Carlos Bernardes throughout the contest as he pleaded with the official to control the crowd.

On more than one occasion, Kyrgios' frustrations boiled over and he could be heard yelling out "shut the f*** up" in the first set tiebreak when he was 0-6 down.

The Aussie was hit with a code violation for that audible obscenity and because he'd already received one for smashing his racquet, Kyrgios was docked a point.

He even argued with a crowd member sitting near actor Ben Stiller, before dragging the movie star into the drama.

The enigmatic Aussie finished the show as he smashed his racquet to the floor at his feet, which unfortunately ricocheted near a ball kid standing at the back of the court.

While Kyrgios wasn't apologetic to a reporter when asked about the specific incident with the ball kid, he has since apologised for the racquet throw and met with the ball kid in a nice gesture.

Nadal remained as cool as ever to block out the drama around him and expertly see out the match to book a spot in the semi-finals and extend his unbeaten start to 2022 out to 19 matches.

However, Nadal was also asked about his opponents antics after the Indian Wells epic.

Nadal didn't want to address the controversy too much having been asked about Alexander Zverev's incident in the lead up to the tournament.

The Spaniard said he didn't see any of the behaviour from Kyrgios for him to comment specifically, but said harsher punishment needs to be taken if players cross the line after the last few weeks.

"I like him (Nick Kyrgios) like a character. But of course when you cross some lines, then the thing becomes different, no,” Nadal said in his post-match press conference.

“And the problem is, in my opinion, when you allow the players to do stuff, then you don't know where the line is. And it's a tricky thing.

“But probably because these situations are happening more and more often, the ATP should review things and make decisions. Not about today's match because I didn't see what happened at the end, so I can’t have an opinion."

Rafa Nadal quashes talks of feud with Nick Kyrgios

Kyrgios and Nadal haven't always seen eye-to-eye during their rivalry, which the Spaniard now leads 6-3.

But, Nadal was quick to quash talks of any simmering feud between the pair as he praised Kyrgios' character.

“I think Nick had a great attitude during the whole match in terms of fighting spirit, and of course he has his personality, his character. Sometimes he does things I don’t like, but I respect because of a different character… different points of view," Nadal said.

“But the most important part, why we are coming here, is to try to play tennis in the best way possible. I think he did. He fought until the end. He played some great level tennis. And that’s the Nick Kyrgios that I probably want to see and the people like to see, no? Because that’s good for tennis.

“And then all that stuff, I hope it was nothing too bad because I wish him the best. But if it’s bad, the ATP need to make decisions to avoid that and stop that because otherwise – even if it’s very unlucky or unfortunate – something negative will happen.”

While Nadal remained level-headed over the incident, many in the tennis world were more critical of Kyrgios.

Plenty of fans slammed the crowd for goading the enigmatic Aussie.

While others couldn't look past his behaviour on court.

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