The war of words between Stan Wawrinka and Nick Kyrgios continued Thursday after Kyrgios refuted Wawrinka’s claims that the Australian tennis player didn’t apologize for inappropriate remarks made at a match last week regarding Wawrinka’s girlfriend.
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Kyrgios was fined $A13,500 for a crude remark directed at the dual major champion, and took to Twitter to express his remorse.
Asked if he was happy how Kyrgios had reacted in the wake of the controversy, the Swiss world No. 5 responded: “He didn’t apologize, so no. But I prefer not to talk about him, thank you”.
French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka battled his way past Borna Coric on Wednesday to earn a spot in the Cincinnati Masters third round with a 3-6, 7-6, 6-3 victory over the 18-year-old. I privately and publicly apologised immediately after the match last week. With one sentence, he can touch and hurt a lot of people. “He should. That’s it. That simple”, Wawrinka said.
“Honestly, I’ve had a lot of support…a lot of anger in the locker room for what he did”. There is no blame game, I take full responsibility for what was said and for what has been a hard learning experience.
Vekic, 19, also made her own response after being dragged into the controversy.
“I haven’t spoken to Kyrgios. But it’s a very disappointing thing to be happening in our sport and I hope it won’t happen again because it’s not a very good image for our sport”, she said.
Spaniard Rafael Nadal finished even later as he defeated Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4. The Serb has played and lost four finalist here without winning a set it is the only Masters 1000 title he has not won.
In the women’s second round, Italian Karin Knapp beat Russian hopeful Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 6-1 while former number one Jelena Jankovic left American Madison Keys a tearful wreck during and after a 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 second-round win.
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Williams prevailed in 90 minutes and showed none of the rare struggles that dogged her during last week’s semi-final loss to Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic in Toronto. Caroline Garcia beat fourth seed Petra Kvitova 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 after another night rainstorm which pushed finishing time of some matches to after midnight.
