Tennis bad boys fail to impress Kyrgios

THEY dropped F-bombs and forced a chair umpire to intervene, but this spat by a pair of professionals made Nick Kyrgios laugh.

Daniil Medvedev confronts Stefanos Tsitsipas as the chair umpire steps in.

IT all started with an emergency bathroom break.

Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev, notorious for a couple of punishable meltdowns over the past two years, erupted after his victory Thursday over Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Miami Open, having taken offence at a number of actions Tsitsipas took during the match that he considered disrespectful.

Medvedev’s anger initially appeared to boil over after Tsitsipas returned from using the bathroom in the third set, then hit a shot off the net during a point Medvedev went on to lose.

Tsitsipas hit a forehand that grazed the tape, shot up into the air and fell just over the other side, forcing Medvedev to sprint toward the net to recover. On the next shot, the Russian hit his backhand volley wide and fumed back to the baseline.

“Medvedev wanting an apology for something,” the TV announcer observed, with Medvedev audibly shouting at Tsitsipas to “say sorry,” according to footage obtained by Deadspin. “Perhaps he’s a bit miffed by that toilet break that was taken.”

Tsitsipas, who holds a No. 70 ATP ranking to Medvedev’s No. 52, had requested the bathroom break near the beginning of the set, after Medvedev did the same the set prior. Tsitsipas taking his turn still upset Medvedev, who reignited the argument following his 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win.

“Man, you better shut your f*** up, OK?” Medevedev shouted at Tsitsipas from his sideline chair after the two had shaken hands at the net. “Hey Stefanos, you want to look at me and talk? You go emergency toilet for five minutes during and then you hit let and you don’t say sorry? You think you’re good kid? Look at me!”

Testy denouement to the Medvedev-Tsitsipas NextGen clash in Miami today: pic.twitter.com/0TBQOF0cje

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) March 22, 2018

Medvedev had to be restrained after he started approaching Tsitsipas, looking for a fight.

“He started it, he started it. He said ‘bulls*** Russian,’ you think this is normal?” Medevedev said, claiming the 19-year-old Tsitsipas used the derogatory phrase during the match. “I answer him because … he’s a small kid who doesn’t know how to fight.”

Medvedev, 22, previously was thrown out of a match for unsportsmanlike conduct, then disqualified from a 2016 USTA event, after the association ruled he made a racist remark toward the chair umpire. “I know that you are friends. I am sure about it,” he appeared to say to the umpire while playing American Donald Young, both of whom are African-American.

At Wimbledon the next year, Medvedev showed poor sportsmanship again toward the chair umpire. Frustrated with the calls during his second-round match, Medvedev asked that the umpire be replaced, was denied his request and, on his way out after the five-set defeat, tossed coins at him.

He apologised afterwards for doing a “bad thing.”

His latest furore failed to impress Nick Kyrgios, who tweeted “Lol none of them gonna do a thing” in response to vision of the incident.

Nick Kyrgios wasn't impressed with the bravado.