By Scott Spits
New York: Nick Kyrgios has accused the ATP of being corrupt in a sensational aftermath to his US Open first-round victory and a move that is bound to have further repercussions for the volatile Australian.
Having just staged an impressive but at times fiery three-set victory over American Steve Johnson at Flushing Meadows, the tennis firebrand was asked what he thought about being fined $US113,000 ($167,000) – believed to be the biggest fine dished out in the sport – for his ugly meltdown in Cincinnati this month.
"The ATP is pretty corrupt anyway. I'm not fussed about it at all," he said in a development that will almost certainly force the governing body of men's tennis to suspend the Australian, having already declared it was considering such a move.
When Kyrgios was asked if he should have been defaulted at the Cincinnati Masters and, therefore, avoid being fined, the Australian engaged in an exchange with a journalist as his agent John Morris and an ATP press official tried to cut short the post-match media conference in the early hours of Wednesday morning in New York.
"I was fined $113,000 for what? Why are we talking about something that happened three weeks ago when I just chopped up someone first round of a US Open," Kyrgios retorted.
The reporter replied by saying that his penalty was a substantial fine and now was the time to ask his reaction.
"I am just asking a question. Have you? Have you ever sworn at someone before?" Kyrgios responded.
When told by the journalist that they do swear but not usually in public, he responded: "You are also not an elite athlete. Just answer my question. Have you ever sworn at someone before?"
Kyrgios was slapped with separate penalties for an audible obscenity, ball abuse, verbal abuse towards the umpire, leaving the court and four counts of unsportsmanlike conduct during his loss to Russian Karen Khachanov two weeks ago.
Significantly, the ATP at the time said it was "looking further into what happened during and immediately after the match to see if additional action is warranted under the player major offence section of the code and that could result in an additional fine and/or suspension".
Nick Kyrgios points out distractions in the crowd during his match against Steve Johnson.Credit: AAP
US Open officials had given Kyrgios the green light to play the final slam of the year. But the ATP offered no timeline around when it would make any decision on the Australian’s fate.
Kyrgios has only previously been suspended once before – in late 2016 for eight tournament weeks over "conduct contrary to the integrity of the game" at the Shanghai Masters.
When asked about how he spent his time after the Cincinnati incident, Kyrgios said he spent all of last week fine-tuning his preparation for this week's major.
"I actually came to New York. I've just been training. To see that my training is carrying over to the matches is pretty good," Kyrgios said.
"I felt like I was moving well, playing well. I think that week of training before paid off pretty well."