Nick Kyrgios fined $35,000 for angry outburst at Miami Open

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Nick Kyrgios has been fined $35,000 for his behavior during a fourth-round loss to Jannik Sinner at the Miami Open in which he criticized the umpire and smashed his racket, the sport’s governing ATP said on Thursday.

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After repeatedly beating umpire Carlos Bernardes for failing to control the crowd at the Masters 1000 tournament on Tuesday, Kyrgios received a point penalty in the first set tiebreak for telling a friend in the stands he could do a better job officiating.

The Australian wild card then received a game penalty – putting Italian Sinner up a break at the start of the second set – after repeatedly yelling “What is unsportsmanlike?” to Bernardes, and then walked to his bench, where he whacked his racket against the court.

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The ATP said Kyrgios was fined $5,000 for audible obscenity, $10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct and $20,000 for verbal abuse.

Asked after the match about his behaviour, Kyrgios defended his character while railing against the umpire.

“He’s not even going to get a slap on the wrist for his dreadful umpiring performance today. Like, he was horrendous,” said the Australian.

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The incident followed an outburst at Indian Wells earlier this month, where Kyrgios lost his temper after losing in the quarter-final to Rafa Nadal, smashing his racket to the ground, which then bounced up and almost hit a ball boy.

He apologized after the match and was fined $25,000.