Kyrgios fined £26k as he fumes at umpire in crazy match with court invader
Nick Kyrgios was praised for getting through his opening three matches calmly, saying he was “keeping his head down” as he managed to stun the likes of fifth seed Andrey Rublev in 51 minutes. But playing his first match on the Grandstand court against Sinner in the last-16, the Aussie first took issue with the court conditions before aiming his tirade at umpire Carlos Bernardes when his walky-talkie went off in the microphone mid-rally.
“Just to let you know guys, centre court is completely different to the grandstand for some odd reason. May as well be grass and clay. What a joke,” he first said, before hitting out at Bernardes for the interruption, ranting: “A fourth round of Miami, one of the biggest tournaments and you guys just can’t do your job. It’s embarrassing. Get a new set of referees, these guys don’t know how to do s***. Walky-talkies going off.”
Kyrgios then received a point penalty in the first-set tiebreak for unsportsmanlike conduct as he continued to talk about Bernardes and argued against it after losing the first set, which earned him a game penalty to start the second a break down. Just when the match couldn’t get any more dramatic, a fan invaded the court and got a selfie with Kyrgios himself before security escorted him off. After losing 7-6(5) 6-3 to Sinner, the ATP later reviewed the match and fined the 26-year-old a total of £26,635 for four separate offences. His audible obscenity and two counts of unsportsmanlike conduct were worth £3,805 each, while verbal abuse of Bernardes saw him slapped with a £15,220 penalty.
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It was a sixth-consecutive second-round loss for Andy Murray in Miami, who was back under the watchful eye of his old coach Ivan Lendl. The former world No 1 defeated Federico Delbonis in straight sets before falling to top seed Medvedev 6-4 6-2 in Lendl’s first match back in the Brit’s box since he left the team in 2017. Emma Raducanu also crashed out in round two after receiving a bye to the second round as the 11th seed. The US Open champion was leading by a set and a break before doubles world No 1 Katerina Siniakova fired back and won 3-6 6-4 7-5.
Murray will now undergo a training block in Miami with Lendl, while Raducanu is gearing up for her first-ever clay-court season. Meanwhile in Miami, Cameron Norrie finally broke into the world’s top 10 for the first time – the first British man since Murray himself to occupy the elite group in almost five years. His first match in Miami came against fellow Brit Jack Draper who scored his maiden Masters 1000 win against former world No 6 Gilles Simon before losing to his fellow countryman. But Draper flew straight to France and ended up winning his fourth Challenger title of the year in Saint-Brieuc, himself breaking new ground as he rose to world No 124. And Joe Salisbury reached the world No 1 spot in doubles, making it another milestone for the Brits in the ranks.
As for Murray’s opponent, Medvedev could have reclaimed the world No 1 spot by reaching the semis and was once match away in his quarter-final against defending champion Hubert Hurkacz but the 26-year-old noticably struggled on court during the match, later saying he was suffering with dizziness and cramps. A day after crashing out in the last-eight, Medvedev revealed he had been playing with a small hernia for the last few months and would now have a “medical procedure” that will leave him sidelined for the next 1-2 months, likely the entire clay swing. But with few points to defend on notoriously his least successful surface, the US Open champion could even overtake Novak Djokovic as world No 1 without setting foot on court.
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The 18 and 20-year-olds walked away as the champions this week in Miami, each making history by doing so. Alcaraz became the youngest man ever to lift the title a month shy of his 19th birthday by defeating Casper Ruud 7-5 6-4 while Swiatek became the youngest woman ever to do the ‘Sunshine Double’, winning both Indian Wells and Miami, by defeating Naomi Osaka 6-4 6-0.
Swiatek has also become the new world No 1 as of Monday after the shock retirement of Ash Barty. The reigning Wimbledon and Australian Open champion announced that she would be hacking up her racket aged just 25 ahead of the Miami Open, where she was the two-time defending champion. By winning her opening match, Swiatek secured herself the world No 1 spot with Barty’s removal from the rankings but has more than proved she deserves the spot by winning the Sunshine Double.
And her finals opponent, Osaka, was eyeing a Federer and Nadal-style rivalry with the young Pole after reaching her first final since winning the 2021 Australian Open 13 months ago. “I mean, I would love to be rivals with Iga, but I feel like we need to — like Federer and Nadal played so many different times, so we’d need to play at least five different times, I would say,” she said after their final.
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