Nick Kyrgios finds it funny how people showed so much understanding for Andrey Rublev’s French Open outbursts and blamed it on just the Russian being passionate and emotional, but when he does something similar, people call him “a disgrace” and blast his behavior as “disrespectful.”
On Friday, world No. 6 Rublev smashed his racket numerous times – kicked a bench – and also got into an argument with the chair umpire before picking up a surprise three-set defeat to rising Italian star Matteo Arnaldi.
For Rublev, delivering outbursts was nothing new – but when he does that – fans usually show empathy and wish he could somehow resolve those on-court problems and not harm himself. And after the Arnaldi loss, a reporter posed Rublev a question that went: “We could see your emotions on court and what it meant to you. Now you have had time to reflect. What are the emotions you’re feeling after a defeat like that?”
“Completely disappointed with myself the way I behaved, the way I performed, and I don’t remember behaving worse on a slam ever. I think it was first time I ever behave that bad,” Rublev said after the match.
Andrey Rublev© Getty Images Sport – Clive Brunskill
Kyrgios: Funny how we pick and choose when…
Responding to Rublev’s post-match comments and how people reacted to it, Kyrgios wrote: “Funny how we pick and choose when we ask ‘could see your emotions on court and how much it meant to you’ compared to ‘disgrace’ (disrespect).”
Funny how we pick and choose when we ask ‘could see your emotions on court and how much it meant to you’ compared to ‘disgrace’ (disrespect)
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) June 1, 2024
Like Rublev, Kyrgios is also not a stranger to delivering outbursts and meltdowns on the court. But over the years, Kyrgios would usually catch a lot of criticism and scrutiny after such situations.
In the last few years, Kyrgios explained several times that outbursts and meltdowns happen only because he cares about the sport and wants to win – but that people don’t seem to understand that.
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