Nick Krygios, who has earned the tag "Bad boy of Tennis" for his on-court behavior, may have taken it a bit too far when he made a derogatory remark to Stan Wawrinka, his Swiss opponent in the Montreal Masters.
In the middle of the match, the Aussie Krygios was heard on the microphone saying: "Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend, Sorry to tell you that, mate."
The references were Thanassi Kokkinakis, a fellow Australian player and his teammate in the Davis Cup. Wawrinka's rumored girlfriend is Croatian player Donna Vekic, who some observers anoint as "the next Maria Sharapova."
As of this writing, it has been known that Krygios has been fined by the ATP. In a report from Sky Sports, the ATP has fined the maximum on-site penalty amounting to US$ 10,000.
Stan Wawrinka on his part confided to Fox Sports that he actually confronted the Australian netter in the locker room.
He tried to avoid me, but I confronted him," Wawrinka confides. "It will stay in locker room. But I think there are things, regardless of how you are, regardless of the stress you have on court, there are things you just cannot say."
He continues: "And regardless of whether or not he sidesteps it, I think the way he behaves on court, he has big problems.I just hope that the ATP will take big measures against him because he's young maybe, but there's no excuse."
Apparently, this is only the latest in a display of errant behavior from Krygios. "Every match he has problems. Every match he behaves very badly. On top of that the problem is that he doesn't just behave badly towards himself he behaves very badly towards the people around: the other players, the ball kids, the umpires," Wawrinka said.
"I really hope the ATP will take major action against him this time."