Nick Kyrgios fired another verbal volley at Wimbledon officials during a heated 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 6-4 second round win over Argentina's Juan Monaco on Wednesday. Kyrgios has a reputation as one of the most volatile players on the men's tour and the Australian youngster is already facing a fine after shouting "dirty scum" following a row with umpire Mohamed Lahyani in his first round match against Diego Schwartzman. The 20-year-old had insisted he was directing the abuse at himself rather than Lahyani, but he did himself no favours with more ranting at umpire Carlos Bernardes and a line judge during his one hour and 39 minute-victory against Monaco.
Kyrgios said he didn't care if he was fined after his previous outburst, but he tried to play down his latest blast. "I was just asking the umpire what the line judge said. I was just curious. I wasn't causing any drama there," said Kyrgios. "I'm aware of what I'm saying (on court). But I'm in pain and I'm playing a tennis match in the Wimbledon second round. There's a bit of stress out there.
"I just thought the umpire thought he was top dog in the chair really. He was telling me not to speak to him, all that stuff. Doesn't really matter, you know." With the sizzling temperatures approaching 34C, Kyrgios, who faces Canadian seventh seed Milos Raonic in the third round, quickly lost his cool on Court 18, even though the 26th seed was dominating the match. Kyrgios, who made his name with a stunning fourth round win over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon last year, was swearing loudly at regular intervals and with the youngster's grumbling showing no signs of abating, a line judge standing nearby went to speak to Bernardes.
The umpire said something to the Australian in response to that information, prompting Kyrgios to angrily snap: "Is that a threat? Does it feel good to be in the chair up there? Do you feel strong up there?" Kyrgios wasn't finished and he told the line judge: "You're a real champion. Did you get your point across?" Throughout all his moaning, Kyrgios was still playing well enough to overwhelm world number 35 Monaco and he has yet to drop a set in this year's tournament.
His powerful performance against Monaco was even more impressive since he had been affected by blurred vision and headaches, as a result of a lingering sinus infection, during Wednesday's match. "I've just had a little bit of a sinus infection the last couple weeks," he said. "It's getting to the end stages of it. But it's still affecting me a little bit. "It's pretty annoying at the start of matches. I started getting blurry vision.
"I thought I dug out the first set well and lifted my energy towards the second and third." Kyrgios will need to be fully fit and focused in the next round when he seeks to avenge last year's Wimbledon quarter-final loss against the big-serving Raonic. "After last year's performance against him, I'm confident I can do well," he said. "But at the same time, if a guy is serving as well as he is, it's going to be tough. "That serve, I think it's possibly the best in the game at the moment."
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