Kokkinakis, Wawrinka distance themselves from Kyrgios

Nick Kyrgios did not sledge Stan Wawrinka. He wasn’t that brave. He stabbed him in the back.

It’s been a tough time for French Open champion Stan Wawrinka, the victim of an ugly outburst from Kyrgios.

Nick Kyrgios did not sledge Stan Wawrinka. He wasn’t that brave. He stabbed him in the back. He delivered his sneering remarks when he knew Wawrinka was out of earshot. You cannot be credited or discredited with a sledge unless you have the balls to say it to the victim’s face. This was cowardice.

Kyrgios shook Wawrinka’s hand at the net with a fake and pathetic sincerity. Forced to apologise afterwards because he was busted by courtside microphones, Kyrgios claimed to have cleared the air with all three innocents. Rubbish. This has not happened, according to Wawrinka. He should have put one on Kyrgios’s chin. Donna Vekic should have slapped his face. There’s still time.

They were all at the Cincinnati Masters — Kyrgios, Wawrinka, Vekic and Kokkinakis. Kyrgios had the opportunity to salvage a degree of respect by begging for their forgiveness. He didn’t go near them. All support for him has been lost. All of it.

There’s no longer a defence. He’s embarrassed Australian ­tennis like never before. A mighty global sport has been humiliated. Davis Cup will be cringeworthy if Kyrgios is involved. He’s going to represent us? How do we support or celebrate that?

Bernie Tomic was sacked for criticising Tennis Australia in a mad rambling press conference that no one outside Australia particularly cared about. Kyrgios has shamed himself, his country and the ATP. The locker room wants to throttle him.

When he lost to Richard Gasquet in a lame performance at the Cincinnati Masters, nobody in Australia cared. That’s how a proud sporting nation delivers its verdict on certain athletes. Maybe this will make Kyrgios take notice: we’ve just stopped caring. Sorry to tell you that, mate.

“He didn’t really apologise to the people,” Wawrinka told reporters after a distracted victory over Croatian Borna Coric. “Not the way that you want to say it. He should. That’s it. That simple.

“There was a lot of anger in the locker room about what he did. As a player, you realise more what he did and what is the consequence for the private lives of people involved. They were not just a few words. With one sentence, he can touch and hurt a lot of people. I had a lot of support in the locker room, that’s for sure.”

Kyrgios was fined a paltry $US12,500 ($17,150) in Montreal. The ATP is yet to announce further sanctions. Wawrinka, Roger Federer and every player in the men’s locker room want him suspended. If TA is serious about its image, he will be made ineligible for one Davis Cup tie.

“I honestly think I’m not the person who can decide what he deserves or not,” Wawrinka said. “I’m confident in the ATP. They know what they’re doing.”

Wawrinka was informed that Nick’s brother, Christos, who told a Sydney radio station that Vekic “loves Kokk” in an unfathomable interview, was forced to buy a ticket at Cincinnati when his credentials were revoked. The world No 4 replied: “Good for him, if he wants to be there. I know he has no access in the players’ area, no credentials. I have nothing to say about him.”

Kyrgios, Wawrinka and Vekic will be at Flushing Meadows next week ahead of the August 31 start of the US Open. New York crowds respond to bravery. Cowards are howled out of town. Kyrgios will get the cold shoulder in the locker room unless he makes a sincere attempt to heal the wounds. And then he will be razzed like he’s never been razzed before by the wildest fans in the sport.

Wawrinka said of his US Open preparations: “I know how I get ready for a grand slam. I know how I deal with everything. I’m sure I’m going to be ready for the US Open. For sure, I was struggling today to be completely on the court and to fight the way I wanted.”

Ironically, Kokkinakis might be in the midst of a blessing in disguise. As Kevin Mitchell wrote in The Guardian this week, differentiating between the good guys and the villains in tennis has almost taken precedence over predicting the winners. Kokkinakis has been thrown under a bus by his alleged mate. The upside is that he can free himself of the assumption that he’s Kyrgios Mk II.

He’s received the chance to ditch the Special K moniker he’s been uneasily sharing with his not-so-special mate. They’ve been paired together in marketing and reporting since they ignited their careers at the same Australian Open. Same potential. Similar firepower. Same personalities? It was assumed so.

But when Kyrgios hit his all-time low, it ensured a whole lot of attention was coming the way of Kokkinakis. He tried to make his position clear to the erroneously confrontational Ryan Harrison. According to tour regulars, he’s since been succeeding in making the tennis world realise he’s a comparatively decent fella. He’s saying it without needing to saying it. He’s saying it without buying the T-shirt: I’m not with stupid.