Nick Kyrgios thrashed, Christos denied entry in Cincinnati

DONNA Vekic, the rising star caught in the Kyrgios-Wawrinka sledge controversy, has spoken for the first time about the sledge.

MADRID, SPAIN - MAY 03: Donna Vekic of Croatia arrives at the player party during day two of the Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament at the Caja Magica on May 3, 2015 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

DONNA Vekic, the rising tennis star caught in the middle of the Nick Kyrgios-Stan Wawrinka sledge drama, has spoken for the first time about the comment.

Kyrgios was dumped out of the Cincinnati Masters overnight, a 6-2 6-1 first-round victim of French 12th seed Richard Gasquet.

The loss meant he avoided a second-round encounter with Thanasi Kokkinakis, the fellow Australian Kyrgios dragged into a major controversy last week with the now infamous “Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend” sledge towards world No. 5 Stan Wawrinka.

The girlfriend in question is the 19-year-old Croatian Vekic, who broke her silence today.

After finishing practice in Vancouver today, Vekic told The Province: “It’s not easy but I’m trying to focus on tennis and my next match.”

She was asked if she had spoken to any of the parties involved, and reportedly delayed before answering: “I don’t know. 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.”

Vekic was due to face Russian Alla Kudryavtseva in the tournament in Vancouver and, coincidentally, Kudryavtseva has been outspoken on Twitter about the Kyrgios sledge.

I think no one approves of what Kyrgios did. Is he bad for the game of tennis? Or bad publicity is better no publicity? #badboy or #dumbass

— Alla Kudryavtseva (@AllaK11) August 17, 2015

Donna Vekic.

Kyrgios’ brother Christos was reportedly denied entry to today’s match and had his ATP credentials revoked after he too became involved in the drama with crude remarks towards Donna Vekic — the rising female tennis star unwittingly at the centre of it all.

According to Fairfax, Christos eventually made his way into the game after buying a ticket. He is expected to have his credentials reinstated for the upcoming US Open.

Kyrgios, building a reputation as the bad boy of the game, was unremarkable in his loss, which lasted for only 56 minutes on the cement of the American Midwest.

The 37th-ranked Australian is now short of match play after this week with the US Open starting in less than a fortnight.

Kygios was smoked by Richard Gasquet.

Too good again today @richardgasquet1 well done mate and good luck for the rest of the tournament.

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) August 18, 2015

Kyrgios ended with four aces and seven double-faults, with the experienced Gasquet breaking four times.

He complained of a back injury during the match and needed treatment on court before succumbing to defeat.

Gasquet now owns a 4-1 lead in their series and set up a second-round clash with Kokkinakis.

It was the first meeting between the duo since their notorious clash at Wimbledon earlier this year, when Kyrgios crashed out in four sets after receiving a code violation and faced accusations of tanking.

Comedian and radio host Dave Hughes has ripped into Christos on Friday after he tried to justify his recent on-court behaviour.

When Hughesy asked Christos whether he understood that the comment Nick made was offensive, the 27-year-old said he did and that he didn’t condone his actions.

However Christos then tried to justify it by saying Nick made the comments within the context of an earlier sledge by Wawrinka, where he accused Nick of faking an injury after their match at Queens.

Hughes was having none of it.

“Nick knew the microphone was there. If he had have said it and there was no microphone there it would be completely different, but by saying it with the microphone there he has trashed the reputation of this young girl,” Hughesy said.

“How can it be the right thing to do, Christos? Mate you, as his mentor, as his brother, are supposed to grab your brother and say, ‘Mate, we need to do something here,’ surely?”

Christos Kyrgios was denied entry by the ATP at the Cincinnati Masters today.

Christos also appeared on Triple M’s The Grill Team program last but was dumped mid-interview after allegedly saying that Donna Vekic, liked “Kokk”.

“If you’re going to come and openly … it’s not even sledging, that’s openly slandering someone after a match then I guess you can expect a bit of sledging back when you play them next,” Christos said on the show.

Grill Team host Matty Johns responded by saying: “I understand that Christos. The difference here is he’s dragged innocent parties into it. He’s dragged young Kokkinakis into it and more to the point, Donna Vekic …”

At this point, the plug was pulled on the interview and the line went dead.

“Sorry, we’ve just had to dump Christos. He said something pretty crook,” co-host Chris Page said.

It was later revealed that Christos had said Ms Vekic “likes Kokk”. When pressed on it later, he was adamant he was referring to the player and nothing sinister.

But in the aftermath, the older Kyrgios vented on his Facebook page writing: “So just did a media interview for Nick. Said Donna obviously loved the ‘kokk’ they cut my interview and said it’s the worst thing they have ever heard on air. Ah cheers.”

Christos continued with some tough talk about Wawrinka, who he claims had a physical altercation with Kyrgios in the locker room after the game.

“The prick is lucky I wasn’t there or he would have been withdrawing from the next few tournaments,” Christos wrote. “He put his hands on Nick — grabbed him and said a whole bunch of abusive s***. I’ve studied law and that s*** is abuse bro. Lucky we aren’t pressing charges.”