The Australian tennis player was responding to a fan after the individual was shouting out prior to him serving; Nick Kyrgios asked the fan if he was any good at tennis, before then turning the attention on Ben Stiller during his loss to Rafael Nadal
Friday 18 March 2022 20:37, UK
Nick Kyrgios brought actor Ben Stiller into a response back to a noisy fan at Indian Wells, asking the individual if he was good at tennis before turning to the actor watching on from the stands.
Stiller, who was sitting a few seats away from the overly verbose fan, provided the perfect subject for Kyrgios' next response back. 'Do I tell him how to act?' he continued, much to the amusement of the rest of the crowd.
The exchange came during Kyrgios' 7-6 (7-0) 5-7 6-4 quarter-final loss against Rafael Nadal at Indian Wells, when the match was at deuce in the final set.
Kyrgios, who entered the competition as a wild card, was playing in an ATP Tour quarter-final for the first time since 2019. In the third round, he beat eighth seed Casper Ruud and that was his first Top 10 win in more than two years.
Both achievements confirmed that he is clearly continuing with the form that helped him and partner Thanasi Kokkinakis, win the Australian Open men's doubles title at the start of the year.
Kyrgios and Nadal had met eight times previously, with the Australian having beaten the world No 4 three times and pushing Nadal to four sets in their most-recent two meetings.
"I felt like, honestly, I was the one to end the streak," Kyrgios said on the ATP's website.
"That's what you dream about as a little kid, to play these events against Nadal and the hype around it. I don't see any other matches getting this kind of hype. As soon as we matched up against each other, social media's going nuts... I think it lived up to it."
Not only did Kyrgios' retort back at the fan ensure that his match with Nadal was a key topic on social media, but his own racket smash post-match also created headlines.
The Australian's racket bounced awkwardly and a ball boy needed to duck out of the way of it as a result.
Kyrgios clearly addressed the matter during his post-match press conference, firmly stating that it was an accident, and that he in no way intended for the racket to go anywhere near the ball boy.
"I just want to apologise to that ball kid at the end of the match," Kyrgios wrote on Instagram. "It was a complete accident and was frustrated at the end of the match.
"My racket took a crazy bounce and was never my intention. If anyone knows who that ball kid is, send me a message and I will send a racket to him. I'm glad he's OK!"
Kyrgios later took to Instagram to apologise and tweeted an exchange of messages with the ball boy in which he promised to give him a racket.
Following his defeat, Kyrgios also addressed the impact that some members of the crowd are having on tennis matches now.
"I just want people to know that you're a spectator. You've bought tickets to come watch us play. At least don't scream out before first and second serve," Kyrgios said.
"I know when you play Rafa, 99 per cent of the crowd is going to go for these guys. And I'm not asking for the crowd to go for me or cheer my name or go nuts for me when I'm winning or losing or anything."
In the second round at Indian Wells, Naomi Osaka was reduced to tears after being heckled by a supporter.
Osaka began to cry after a person screamed, "Naomi, you suck!" early on in her eventual 6-0 6-4 loss to Veronika Kudermetova.
"For me it wasn't so much similar to Osaka's situation," Kyrgios noted. "I think it's just this generation. Everyone feels like their opinion is valid.
"When you're a spectator and you're watching professionals play tennis, you should just be quiet. Don't tell me how to play. Like, you could not win a single point against Rafa Nadal. Just sit on your seat and watch me play tennis. That's it.
"And they think that they have some sort of right to scream out to players like they did to Osaka the other night," Kyrgios continued. "It affects people, we're only human... I'm not perfect, but what I'm saying is you can't do that to people.
"Just sit and enjoy the show we're putting on, I thought it was a decent match. I thought it was a pretty high level match and I'm just asking for a little bit of respect."
