Nicholas Kyrgios left the crowd amused with his response and even Stiller gave a smile to Kyrgios’ response.
Nick Kyrgios of Australia returns a shot to Rafael Nadal of Spain during the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 17, 2022 in Indian Wells, California. Matthew Stockman/Getty Images/AFP
Australian tennis player Nicholas Kyrgios lost his cool several times during a quarter-final battle with Rafael Nadal in Indian Wells, California, after he found himself to be the subject of abuse from the crowd.
However, during the course of match, the Australian tennis star managed to pull actor Ben Stiller into his response to a noisy fan, leaving the crowd in splits.
Kyrgios was playing to reach the BNP Paribas Open semi-finals and the Australian player struggled to control his temper after continuous interruptions from the crowd.
As reported by Insider, the Indian Wells Masters crowd is infamous for being brash and rude. Kyrgios found himself at the receiving end of some such fans in the tournament and retorted back to an overly verbose fan by saying, “Are you good at tennis? Then why are you speaking?”.
He then turned and pointed to another part of the crowd where Hollywood actor Ben Stiller was sitting. Kyrgios gestured towards him with his racket and said, “Do I tell him how to act? No”, providing the perfect subject to the heckler’s response.
Watch the video here
Nicholas Kyrgios left the crowd amused with his response and even Stiller gave a smile to Kyrgios’ response. Later on, after his quarter-final defeat to Rafael Nadal, Kyrgios also drew flak for smashing his racket on the ground.
Kyrgios lost 7-6 (7/0), 4-7, 6-4 to Nadal and smashed his racket, which nearly hit a ball boy who managed to dodge it in the nick of time.
However, Kyrgios cleared the air regarding his rash behaviour and also took to Twitter to share screenshots of his conversation with the ball boy after the incident. The Australian player apologized for his racket incident and even offered the boy another racket as a token of his apology.
Kyrgios also explained to SkySports how some members of the crowd impact the tennis match. He said that people should realize that they are spectators and should not scream out at players.
The Australian tennis player’s fans have responded to the incident, with most of them finding Nick Kyrgios’s behaviour funny and amusing.
A user hailed the tennis player for sticking on to his style.
Another fan was glad that he did not fit the perception of a traditional tennis player.
On user also wrote that people should not speak out of turn.
What are your thoughts on the entire incident?
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