Nick Kyrgios’ brother dumped by Sydney radio station

CHRISTOS Kyrgios was back on radio justifying the shameful behaviour of his little brother Nick. But Dave Hughes was having none of it.

COMEDIAN and radio host Dave Hughes has ripped into the brother of Australia’s most controversial tennis star, Nick Kyrgios, after he tried to justify his recent on-court behaviour.

Christos Kyrgios was invited on to the Hughesy and Kate show on KIIS FM to discuss the Stan Wawrinka sledging, as well as explain why he had been kicked off air from a radio program.

The 20-year-old Aussie tennis star muttered on court during his match against Wawrinka this week that fellow Aussie tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis “banged” his girlfriend, Croation Donna Vekic.

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.

“I understand that,” Christos replied. “I understand that Nick trashed the reputation of that young girl, which is not necessarily the right thing.”

But Hughesy then cut him off and launched into a tirade.

“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 responded by saying he didn’t condone the behaviour but still tried to justify it.

“As I said to you, I don’t condone the behaviour. Nick doesn’t either. He has apologised.”

“But Christos,” Hughesy continued, “he is not apologising enough mate, and I love Nick and I have always defended him when other people have said he is a goose but even me this time. You’re seven years older than him, you’re his mentor mate, you have to grab your brother and say ‘Mate, you’re trashing your whole career here’.”

Hughesy and co-host Kate Langbroek then tried to explain to Christos that unless his brother reined in his behaviour he would end up being booed every time he walked on to court.

“He is going to get booed, not just in Australia mate but all over the world every time he walks on court unless you and your family tell him he has got to change and has got to realise and be apologetic,” Hughesy said. “He will give up the game, he will retire because of this if you don’t get in his head. Can you help him make this moment that he doesn’t do stuff like this anymore? Can you promise us?”

Dave Hughes has fired up at Christos Kyrgios on air this afternoon. Picture: Calum Robertson

Christos also appeared on Triple M’s The Grill Team program 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.” Another comment was even more offensive. News.com.au chose not to run it. Christos later removed the post.

When asked by hosts Hughesy and Kate about The Grill Team incident, Christos tried to paint it as an innocent slip-up, telling them that he was good friends with Thanasi Kokkinakis and always referred to him as “Kokk”.

“I said that she obviously loved or liked Kokk in the past,” he said. “I am very good friends with Thanasi, so is Nick and we would call him Kokk so they didn’t give me the opportunity to clarify that. They just cut me off then a million media releases were made that I said that she loved Kokk.”

When Kate pointed out that he did say she liked “Kokk” and implied that he meant it in another way, Christos denied it.

KYRGIOS: I GOT SOME SLEEP LAST NIGHT

Nick Kyrgios issued an apology for the incident on Facebook. He was booed as he entered the court for his third round match against John Isner, which he lost 7-5 6-3. After the game, Kyrgios declared the matter finished.

“I mean, it’s all cleared now,” he said. “Obviously I apologised in public and privately as well. I’ve been fined. So everything is sort of put to bed now. I thought we could move on from it.”

Kyrgios received a $US10,000 fine and isn’t expecting any further punishment. “No,” he said. “I don’t think there should be.” He described the furore as “tough” but not “the toughest thing that’s happened”. “I got some sleep last night,” he said.

Tough crowd today & even tougher opponent, well played @JohnIsner unreal serving mate. Good luck in the next round. #TooGood

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) August 13, 2015

Tennis Australia released a statement on Friday saying the fine was appropriate. “Tennis Australia is working closely with Nick and his team to provide the best possible support; we understand how important it is to help educate and influence him both on and off the court,” the statement read.

Davis Cup captain Wally Masur confirmed Kyrgios will not be dropped from Australia’s semi-final against Great Britain. “How punitive can you be? At what point do you start to move forward?” Masur said to Fox Sports News. “Obviously Nick is paying a very heavy price financially, obviously the consequences will go beyond this week, for example among his peers on the tour, the ATP player council, they’ll have their say. Obviously he wants to move on and hopes this is something he can learn from.”

Nick Kyrgios hits a return in his match against Stan Wawrinka.

‘HE SHOULD BE DISQUALIFIED’

AUSTRALIAN Fed Cup Foundation president Jude Dalton believes the fine levied at Kyrgios doesn’t go far enough. “He’s a professional tennis player and you just don’t behave like that,” she told Channel 9’s Today. “He should be disqualified. He shouldn’t be allowed to play the US Open or Davis Cup ...

“He’s so stupid because that’s really detrimental to the game of tennis. In our case, as president of the Fed cup foundation, for the women it’s just so disgraceful. To Donna, I think it’s so demeaning for her. I think it doesn’t encourage women to come into the sport, certainly not the junior girls if they’re going to put up with that.” The Fed Cup Foundation is a non-profit organisation that works to promote women’s tennis.

Here’s Victoria Azarenka’s full response re the Kyrgios incident. pic.twitter.com/dzh7XnSk9F

— Courtney Nguyen (@FortyDeuceTwits) August 14, 2015

THE INNOCENT PARTIES

THE young man and woman unfortunately dragged into the controversy — Kokkinakis and Vekic — have been somewhat silent on the matter to this point.

Vekic, the Croatian 19-year-old who is rumoured to be dating Wawrinka, retweeted a series of comments the Swiss world No. 5 posted yesterday.

Kokkinakis appears to be adopting the wisdom of his father, Trevor, who told The Advertiser yesterday: “Sometimes saying nothing says a lot more than making a public statement.’’

A screen shot of Donna Vekic’s Twitter timeline.