Pat Cash insists Nick Kyrgios ‘went too far’, but he can win Wimbledon thanks to ‘juicy’ draw and ‘weak’ field

Wimbledon
Nick Kyrgios shouting

There was no backing down from Pat Cash following his criticism of Nick Kyrgios’ behaviour during his win over Stefanos Tsitsipas at Wimbledon, but he does believe his fellow Australian has what it takes to win the tournament.

Kyrgios and Tsitsipas were involved in a heated third-round clash on Sunday as tempers boiled over with the former constantly swearing and shouting at officials while the Greek recklessly smashed balls into the crowd and against the backboard.

And the drama didn’t stop after the match was completed as Tsitsipas called his rival a “bully” during the post-match press conference, which was met with a shrug by Kyrgios.

Former Wimbledon champion Cash did not hold back in his criticism of Kyrgios during a BBC radio interview, saying: “It was absolute mayhem. He’s brought tennis to the lowest level I can see as far as gamesmanship, cheating, manipulation, abuse, aggressive behaviour to umpires, to linesmen.

“He was lucky to even get through the first set, he should have been defaulted in the first set.

“Something’s got to be done about it – it’s just an absolute circus. Is it entertaining? Yeah, possibly. It’s gone to the absolute limit now.”

Comment – Kyrgios vs Tsitsipas was X-rated drama that took tennis to a new audience

When asked about his comments during the BBC Wimbledon Daily podcast, Cash replied: “I just think he went too far, I just think he didn’t need to do [that].

“The other side of the coin is that Stefanos Tsitsipas got sucked into it so he has got to have a really good hard look in the mirror.”

He added: “[Kyrgios] quite possibly [also looked himself in the mirror] and said ‘maybe I went too far’.

“I used to know Nick pretty well as a junior, but I haven’t spent a minute with him over the last few years. By all reports he is very hard to reason with, but maybe there is somebody in his team, maybe it is his fiancé or girlfriend that says ‘Nick it is okay buddy, you can beat everybody here by playing your tennis. Your tennis is good enough.’

“He has proven he can beat everybody, the issue with Nick always is whether he can back it up day-after-day… The issue has not been whether he can beat the best players in the world, he has proven he can do that, but it is whether he can do it match after match. You have to win seven matches to win this title and you have got to be focused for seven matches.

“He is down to the last three and it is a pretty good draw. That is the juiciest draw you could possibly get. We know this is a weak tournament, we know why, and there are some illnesses being thrown in there as well. I think all the players out there feel they can win.”

Nick Kyrgios Pat Cash

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