Andy Murray says Nick Kyrgios must learn from his mistakes
Friday 14 August 2015 19:26, UK
Andy Murray claims Nick Kyrgios must learn from the error of his ways in order to win over his fellow players and critics following his lewd taunt to Stan Wawrinka at the Montreal Masters.
Kyrgios was fined £6,405 and sparked a global uproar after telling Wawrinka that his reported girlfriend Donna Vekic has had a previous romantic liaison with Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis.
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A furious Wawrinka demanded the ATP take action against Kyrgios, who later issued a public apology but faces the threat of suspension from the tour.
Pundits and top players, including world No 1 Novak Djokovic, have queued up to criticise Kyrgios but British No 1 Murray believes Kyrgios "made a mistake" and is "not all bad".
"I don't want to say anything bad about Nick because I like him, but the most important thing is that he learns from what happened on Wednesday," said Murray.
"There's obviously certain things in our sport (where) in other sports, that sort of thing gets more often than we imagine in a lot of team sports especially, but in tennis, yeah, there's certain things you shouldn't do and that was one of them. Hopefully he learns from it.
"Nick is not all bad. People want to make it like he is, but he's a young guy who's growing up in the spotlight and there's been a lot of negativity towards him in the last few months and that isn't easy to deal with.
"I think that it's important that he learns from the mistake but that everyone gives him a little break as well because he's not a bad guy. He's just made some mistakes and he'll learn from them and become a better person I'm sure."
Meanwhile, Australia's Davis Cup captain Wally Masur has played down the sledge as "not confrontational" and said he was still in Australia's Davis Cup plans for their semi-final against Great Britain next month.
"How punitive can you be? At what point do you start to move forward?" Masur told local broadcaster Fox Sports.
"Nick is paying a very heavy price financially. Obviously the consequences will go beyond this week, for example amongst his peers on the tour, the ATP player council, they'll have their say."
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However former Australian great Judy Dalton says the player should be banned from Davis Cup and the upcoming US Open over his "disgraceful" comments.
"He's a professional tennis player and you just don't behave like that," she said on Channel Nine's TODAY show. "It's no use fining him -- he just says, 'well I can afford to pay the fine, why should I worry about it?'
"For the women, it's just so disgraceful. To Donna, it is so demeaning for her, and I think that it doesn't encourage women to come into the sport, certainly not the junior girls if they're going to put up with that."
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