Kyrgios said during the weekend that chair umpire Christian Rask should not be allowed to continue officiating on the Tour.
Nick Kyrgios ripped a fan who questioned his take that chair umpire Christian Rask should be fired from his job as the 2022 Wimbledon finalist bluntly stated that “a guy who idolizes tennis players and lived on Twitter” shouldn’t be the one deciding what’s good or bad for tennis players.
During Friday’s Estoril Open quarterfinal between Nuno Borges and Cristian Garin, one incident went viral and prompted reactions from fans but also fellow tennis pros.
After one of Garin’s shots was called out by someone from the crowd, Borges kept playing and returned the ball. Garin didn’t stop the play and then proceeded to hit a forehand as if the point was still on – but after missing it wide out, the Chilean turned to the chair umpire and argued that Borges stopped the play and that he was distracted by that.
The expectation was that chair umpire Rask would either award the point to Borges or simply decide to have the point replayed. But neither of those two happened as chair umpire Rask decided to award the point to Garin. To make it all worse, it was all happening in the moment when Borges had a break point.
After watching footage of the controversial moment, Kyrgios wrote on X: “This umpire should be fired and never be able to take place in another match. Disgrace.”
Kyrgios hits out at a fan who questioned his take
One person thought Kyrgios was way too harsh in his criticism of chair umpire Rask and shared a video of the Australian throwing a chair during a 2019 Rome Masters meltdown.
“Yeah one mistake and your career should be done,” a tennis fan account wrote on X before clarifying: “Point here is everyone makes mistakes and deserves forgiveness.”
Yeah one mistake and your career should be done https://t.co/22ArbTkV1N pic.twitter.com/v6D0QP44jA
— The Big Three (@Big3Tennis) April 6, 2024
After throwing a chair on the court, Kyrgios was disqualified early in the third set of his match against Casper Ruud and he was later also heftily fined and stripped of tournament prize money.
Kyrgios didn’t really think that the argument made by that particular fan made a lot of sense, firing back: “Uh? I wasn’t allowed to keep competing that week and lost prize money? That should be the consequence no? At least? Don’t think his pay check got taken away. Stfu.”
“And also? He is an umpire, don’t think someone should be making as many mistakes this FREQUENTLY. I think being an umpire is a little easier than playing at the highest level. But yeah a guy who idolises tennis players and lives on twitter has the best judgment.”