Olympic legend Dawn Fraser cops a serve after Kyrgios outburst on TV

ONE of Australia’s greatest female swimmers, Olympian Dawn Fraser, has been forced to issue a public apology for her televised tirade against outspoken tennis stars Bernard Tomic and Nick ­Kyrgios.

ONE of Australia’s greatest female swimmers, Olympian Dawn Fraser, has been forced to issue a public apology for her televised tirade against outspoken tennis stars Bernard Tomic and Nick ­Kyrgios.

The Australian swimming legend, who won gold in the 100m freestyle at three successive Olympics, was yesterday branded a racist after she told Channel Nine the two should “go back where their parents came from” in an apparent reference to their ongoing feud with Tennis Australia.

Kyrgios had threatened to pull out of the Davis Cup after Bernard Tomic was stood down from selection and on Monday night put on a bizarre performance during his fourth-round loss to Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon.

Storm... Dawn Fraser outside her home in Noosa.

In an eccentric display Kyrgios appeared to give up in the second set after an altercation with the umpire, hugged a ball boy and argued about changing his socks.

Kyrgios later refused to ­acknowledge his bizarre ­behaviour in a highly-charged post-match press conference.

Yesterday Fraser told morning television show Today that Tomic and Kyrgios should be “setting a better example for the younger generation’’.

Throwing a racket, brat. Debating the rules, disrespectful. Frustrated when competing, spoilt. Showing emotion,...

Posted by Nick Kyrgios on Monday, July 6, 2015

Kyrgios’ mother Nill also said the comments were “out of line”.

I have no comments on Dawn Frasers nasty racist attack...but she is out of line. #unaustralianbehaviour

— nill kyrgios (@nillkyrgios) July 7, 2015

“If they don’t like it, go back to where their fathers or their parents came from. We don’t need them here in this country if they act like that,” she said.

Fraser’s comments attrac-ted widespread criticism on ­social media, including from Kyrgios and his family, and she was labelled “intolerant and unedifying’’ by national Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane.

“I was saddened and disappointed to hear Dawn Fraser’s comments,’’ Dr Soutphommasane told The Daily Telegraph.

“We should really not be in the business of telling migrants and their children to go back to where they came from.”

Kyrgios yesterday took to Twitter to call Fraser a “blatant racist, Australian legend’’ while his mother called it a “nasty racist attack’’ and labelled it unAustralian.

Fraser was today expected to front a new campaign with Asthma Australia but pulled out of media interviews for the campaign. A press release from the organisation said Fraser was “being paid a fee as a contracted ambassador’’ and “the opinions expressed by Dawn are her own”.

In a statement issued by her management yesterday Fraser said she wanted to “unreservedly apologise’’ for any offence she had caused.

“Australians have a rich sporting heritage made up of individuals from a variety of different countries of origin,’’ the statement said.

“My intended message, which was not delivered as ­articulately as it could have been, was on a purely sporting level rather than meant as an attack on Nick’s ethnicity.”

Wow Dawn Fraser, wow. Something I have not heard since primary/high school (almost daily) #unacceptable

— Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) July 7, 2015

This is 1. Horrifically racist and 2. Deeply hypocritical. Dawn Fraser has no right to police anyone's behaviour. https://t.co/6VlK6HCZnh

— Frith (@frithlvl) July 6, 2015

@TheTodayShow irony of interview is that Dawn Fraser denounced #NickKyrgios for his on court behaviour while she acted just as poorly on TV

— Nikos Psaltopoulos (@psaltopoulos) July 6, 2015

I love Dawn Fraser, but Kyrgios is not "disgraceful." Yes, he's got a mouth, & needs to be reeled in, but, he's not the first to be animated

— Shane McInnes (@shanemcinnes) July 7, 2015

Watch the video of Kyrgios’ apparent tanking below.

Kyrgios denied the tanking claims after his controversial Wimbledon campaign came to an end.

“Of course I tried,” Kyrgios said.

“There was a lot of ups and downs. It was a tough, tough time, especially when he’s not missing any balls.

“I’m getting frustrated myself. I feel as if I’m playing not how I should be playing. I’m angry at myself.”

Kyrgios went as far as to suggest Gasquet “was serving too good” — a claim that was not taken well by the assembled press, who grilled him so hard a moderator eventually intervened.

“It hurts,” he added.

“You never want to go out of a grand slam. I feel like I definitely could have done better.”

Nick Kyrgios was a headline machine this Wimbledon campaign.

KYRGIOS’ WIMBLEDON CONTROVERSIES

‘DIRTY SCUM’

That was the phrase Kyrgios used on court during his opening win against Argentinian Diego Schwartzman. Kyrgios had to defend himself afterwards and insisted the slur had not been directed towards the umpire following his threat of a mid-match strike, but rather at himself.

GET DOWN

Kyrgios was ordered by a Wimbledon steward to clamber down from railings outside Court 14 when he climbed up to get a vantage point for a doubles match featuring fellow Aussies Lleyton Hewitt and Thanasi Kokkinakis.

CAUGHT OUT

Wrong-footed by Milos Raonic in their third-round tussle, Kyrgios received a code of conduct warning after slinging his racquet down on the grass in exasperation, and it bounced high over a fence and into a shocked spectator’s arms.

THE FAN-ISH INQUISITION

Kyrgios confronted a fan during the Raonic match who he felt had spoken out of turn. He said later: “I thought she said something like, ‘Pull your head in.’ She started laughing. I didn’t really find it funny. It’s easy when you’re just sitting there and you’re just watching, when you’ve got no experience at all on the court.”

NEW FACES

Kyrgios encouraged fans on Facebook to send him pictures of themselves with faces covered in various sandwich spreads after one of his followers volunteered to do so. Snaps of fans with Vegemite and chocolate across their faces were “weird and wonderful”, according to Kyrgios, but they also sparked suggestions it was a case of ‘blacking up’. Women’s top seed Serena Williams said she would be interested to know why the fans posed for the pictures.

THE INCREDIBLE SULK

The 20-year-old downed tools for the third game of the second set in his fourth-round clash with Gasquet, seemingly irked at being called out for an audible obscenity by umpire James Keothavong in the previous game. His performance was half-hearted for much of the set and Kyrgios went on to lose the match.