Nick Kyrgios gets involved as Thanasi Kokkinakis clashes with Fernando Verdasco
NICK Kyrgios and Fernando Verdasco exchanged barbs after the Spaniard accused Thanasi Kokkinakis’s father of disrespecting him.
THANASI Kokkinakis has been beaten by Fernando Verdasco in a heated third round match at the Miami Open while Nick Kyrgios got involved in the friction as he breezed into the round of 16.
Spanish veteran Verdasco battled to a 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7-4) win over Kokkinakis, who knocked Swiss world No. 1 and defending champion Roger Federer out of the Masters 1000 event, in a match which included a heated exchange between the pair about the Australian qualifier’s father at a change of ends in the third set.
Verdasco accused someone in the stands behind him of talking and distracting him during the match. What he didn’t realise was that was Kokkinakis’ dad.
“He wasn’t disrespecting you, that’s my dad, so that’s affecting me,” Kokkinakis said as the pair argued courtside.
Verdasco rejected the claims, assuring the Aussie he wasn’t talking about his dad, but someone else in the crowd. When pushed on who that was, the Spaniard said it was “the guy on the left with the hat”.
“That’s my f***ing dad,” Kokkinakis replied.
The salty exchange deepened as Kyrgios got involved. In a since-deleted tweet, he wrote: “I hope TK wins this match, Verdasco is the saltiest dude, must be frustrated at his past success against Aussies.”
The prompted Verdasco to fire back, and Kyrgios responded in kind.
@NickKyrgios when you have the courage to put a tweet insulting another player you need to have the same to don’t delete it.
— Fernando Verdasco (@FerVerdasco) March 26, 2018
I would honestly have told it to Fernando’s face, the reason I deleted my previous tweet was because I didn’t want to cause unwanted attention, but I’m just gonna leave this here. Thanks for blocking me, I’m sure that took a lot of courage x
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) March 26, 2018
Kyrgios, the 17th seed, cruised to a routine 6-3 6-3 over 15th-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini, requiring a tick over an hour.
— with AAP
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