Nick Kyrgios took a cheeky shot at Iga Swiatek, sarcastically calling the Pole “a clean player” after she returned to play a ball that appeared to hit the floor twice earlier than she hit it.
On Sunday, the defending champion made mild work of Dayana Yastremska 6-0 6-2 to progress into the Indian Wells round-of-16.
Whereas there wasn’t a lot drama within the match, there was one second that caught the eye of followers. After one in all Yastremska’s drop photographs, Swiatek rushed to the ball and returned it into play. After the purpose was replayed on TV display, the commentator mentioned on air: “No, it hit the ground first.”
Whereas the Forty sixth-ranked Ukrainian received that time, some nonetheless weren’t proud of the chair umpire or the second-seeded Pole, with some alleging that the five-time Grand Slam champion knew it hit the courtroom twice however opted to remain silent.
Reacting to it, Kyrgios mentioned: “Clean player (laughing emojis).”
Nick Kyrgios X put up© X
Not the primary time Kyrgios has referred to as out Swiatek
For the reason that 23-year-old’s doping case got here to mild in November, the Australian has taken a number of photographs on the former world No. 1.
Initially of the 2025 season, the 2022 Wimbledon finalist slammed Swiatek and Jannik Sinner’s doping instances as disgusting. Additionally, he mocked the Polish tennis star for utilizing “the victim card” after one in all her interviews.
“I had no idea what happened, at the beginning I didn’t have a source right on. We had to send supplements to the labs and wait for the results. It was so chaotic,” Swiatek said on Caroline Garcia’s Tennis Insider Club in early 2025.
“I didn’t know if it was going to be you know two years or three months or something else. It was really tough… I don’t want to go through this again.”
After studying about it, Kyrgios wrote on X: “The old I’m the victim card – this tennis world really controls the narrative – it’s a bad joke.”
