As the US Open starts, players begin to give declarations toward the upcoming games with their rivals. Andy Murray was calling for patience for his first round opponent Nick Kyrgios who has been lately on the public spotlight due to unprofessional behavior.
The young australian made some inappropriate comments against Stan Wawrinka’s girlfriend during their match in Montreal on August 12. The ATP reacted and fined Kyrgios $25,000 and ordered a 28-day suspension. However, Nick still remains eligible to play the Open with no consequences apart from the condition of having a professional behavior for the next six months.
With no intentions of condoning Kyrgios’ actions, Murray cited his age and the nature of sport’s spotlight. “He’s a young guy and he’s made mistakes, and everyone here when they were 19-20 would have done some bad things and made some mistakes,” said Murray at the National Tennis Centre where he was preparing for the Open . “It’s unfortunate that it happens in front of millions of people. I just think it’s wrong a lot of the things he’s done, but I also think he’s still a young guy and people mature and grow up at different rates. Not everyone is the same. He’ll learn. I don’t think he’s a bad person at all.”
Not everybody thinks the same
The fourteen-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal refused to play in doubles with Kyrgios in a charity event. The spanish player said that he wasn’t aware of the conditions of the event organized by John McEnroe’s Tennis Academy. “I was never supposed to play a doubles match,” the Daily Mail quotes Nadal as saying. “First, I was only supposed to play singles in the exhibition so that [article] was wrong information.”
Source: NY Times