Nick Kyrgios assault charges: tennis star silent after beating Cristian Garin in Wimbledon 2022 quarterfinal
Fresh off booking a Wimbledon semi-final against Rafael Nadal, the first question Nick Kyrgios was asked was about a different kind of court, in his hometown of Canberra.
Fresh off the court having scorched his way to a Wimbledon semi-final matchup against old nemesis Rafael Nadal, Nick Kyrgios said the previous 24 hours had been “hard”, having received a summons to attend a Canberra court to face a charge of assault.
Kyrgios refused to answer a question about the timing of the summons and when he first became aware of it, nor did he answer a question about whether he would attend the court as ordered, during a relatively sedate press conference following his straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(5) win over Chilean Cristian Garin.
“I understand you want me to give you the answers but I can’t speak any more on the issue,’’ Kyrgios, 27, said.
The first question of the packed press conference was about this other court in the ACT, not Wimbledon.
He had earlier flagged that “obviously I have a lot of thoughts and a lot of things I want to say, you know, kind of my side about it, but obviously if have been advised by lawyers that I am unable to say anything at this time”.
When quizzed about his experience of the past 24 hours when the court summons became public, Kyrgios initially said it didn’t really affect him, before admitting: “Obviously seeing it – I’m only human. Obviously I read about it and obviously everyone else was asking questions. It was hard. It was hard to kind of just focus on kind of the mission at hand. It was quarterfinals of Wimbledon today. I know deep down that’s what I was prepared for.”
"I never thought I'd be at a semi-final of a Grand Slam"@NickKyrgios thought his ship had sailed but he's through to the last four#Wimbledonpic.twitter.com/56fHc7Qqve
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 6, 2022
It has emerged that Kyrgios recently shared an Instagram video of himself, current girlfriend Costeen Hatzi and his sister Halimah that contained some poorly timed dialogue.
Ms Hatzi says in the video: “If you’re doing a video, I’m going to punch you in the face”, with all three bursting into laughter.
Ms Hatzi and Ms Kyrgios both shared the clip.
Kyrgios has been told to attend the court on August 2, in relation to a charge of assault relating to his former girlfriend Chiara Passari in December 2021.
Another former girlfriend of Kyrgios is the Australian tennis player Ajla Tomljanovic, who had played on the same Wimbledon court earlier where she was valiant in a three-set quarterfinal loss to Khazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina.
Tomljanovic, 29, told reporters: “It’s been a while since our relationship ended, I’ve always kept my relationship very private and it would like to keep it like that.”
She then added: “I’m definitely against domestic violence. I hope it gets resolved. But, yeah, I mean, I haven’t had that experience with him.”
In the press conference, Kyrgios instead spoke about his mental health battles, saying he had battled in the past year-and-a-half to continue playing.
“Lost the love, lost the fire, lost the spark. Then some things just changed in my life. I don’t know. I kind of just rediscovered that I’ve got a lot of people that want me to play, that I play for,” he said.
“I’ve got a lot left in the tank. I feel like I’m probably playing some of my best tennis, mentally feeling great. It’s been a heck of a ride.”
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