Australian tennis firebrand Nick Kyrgios has revealed that he has been slugged with over $1.1 million in fines during his international tennis career.
Kyrgios has often walked a fine line between crude and colourful during his career and has been repeatedly fined and suspended by the ATP Tour for his antics.
He has now revealed that he has collectively been fined around $800,000USD, which equates to over $1.1 million in Australian money.
Kyrgios’ career has been a smashing success, if you look at it from the perspective of how many rackets he has destroyed in fits of rage over the years
That would easily cover Kygios’ share of a proposed $1million-each grudge match proposed by rival Bernard Tomic.
Kyrgios still has no desire to entertain ‘dead broke’ and ‘desperate’ Tomic’s challenges, but admitted his fines were at least going to a good cause.
‘All the fines that I get fined go to charity,’ he told the Turn up the Talk podcast.
‘That’s for everyone. So every time we get fined they’re like it’s going to charity. I was like, “I don’t know why you would tell me that.”
‘I would probably have in my entire career – man, I have been hit with some bigger ones – but I don’t think all the time it has been fair, to be honest.
‘But I would say I’d be approaching around $800,000 [USD], I reckon.’
Kyrgios and former Davis Cup teammate Tomic have been warring on social media. Kyrgios’ fines alone would be enough to cover his entry into a proposed challenge between the two
Kyrgios holds the record for the biggest fine ever issued by the ATP, a whopping $157,000 for a violation of code of conduct during his second-round loss against Karen Khachanov at the Western and Southern Open 2019 in Cincinnati.
That escalated into an ongoing feud that included Kyrgios calling the Russian star an ‘absolute pelican’ on Twitter in 2020.
There is daylight between Kyrgios and second place, which goes to infamous firebrand John McEnroe. He was slugged with a $17,500 fine for verbally abusing the chair umpire in his match against Slobodan Zivojinovic at the US Open in 1987.
Like Kyrgios, McEnroe had a history of blow-ups with officials and his fine would equate to about $60,000.
During her match against Naomi Osaka at the 2018 US Open, Serena Williams was issued a $17,000 fine for the code of violation. During her US Open loss, the American referred to the umpire as a ‘liar’ and ‘thief’.
She also accused the umpire of sexism, saying: ‘There are men out here who do a lot worse than me’ and, ‘Because I’m a woman, you are going to take this away from me? That is not right’.
Kyrgios has a long history of altercations with chair umpires and is constantly questioning their decisions, resulting in a litany of fines and suspensions through his career
Kyrgios said the fines he was slugged were definitely reputation-based and pointed to an example involving a tennis player actually putting an umpire in hospital and only being fined $7000 USD.
Chair umpire Arnaud Gabas was injured during Canada’s Davis Cup match against Great Britain in 2017 when Denis Shapovalov struck him under his left eye. He underwent surgery on a fractured bone.
‘I feel if you look at what some other players have done and then you put me in that position, I would have been suspended for like three or four years,’ Kyrgios said.
‘You know what I mean? Like, there was a player that hit a ball like in anger at an umpire and hit his eye and the umpire had to get surgery.
Kyrgios reckons he is unfairly targeted and pointed to an example of a player sending an umpire to the ICU for surgery on their eye as proof
‘He didn’t deliberately aim at him. But it’s like he snapped, he was supposed to like, skyrocket the ball [but] he hit the umpire in the eye, got fined $5000 [It was a £5,600 fine issued by the International Tennis Federation] and the umpire had to get surgery.
‘I got fined £15,000 at this tournament for like kind of doing this thing [simulating a sex act] with this water bottle … that’s like $30,000 [AUD].
‘I was like, this guy put a guy in the ICU … for his eye and I’m just like having a bit of fun.
‘I was just looking at my team and I didn’t realise the camera was on me.’