The war of words between Rafael Nadal‘s camp and Nick Kyrgios has continued, with the Spaniard’s uncle and the maligned Australian now exchanging barbs.
Kyrgios has again taken to social media to respond to comments, this time made by Toni Nadal.
This came after the world No.36’s latest on-court meltdown. He walked off during his Italian Open match against Norwegian qualifier Casper Ruud after throwing a chair onto the red clay.
“I feel bad for him, but something is failing, the ATP has given him too much hype, he plays very well, but with another mentality he would aspire to the maximum, he should make an effort to change,” the uncle of world No. 2 Nadal told El Espanol.
“It’s hard for him to take the pressure and the difficulty of the competition, he does not do any good in the sport, in the end there is no other option but to put a penalty on him.
“It is bad for tennis and has entered a dynamic that hurts him, something is failing, it is not normal, I have seen the images and his attitude is quite painful.”
Kyrgios responded via Twitter, with a winking emoji and the words: “I’ll try and clean up my act.”
This is being interpreted as a continuation of Kyrgios’ line of attack against the veteran clay court specialist, which began after the duo clashed at the Mexico Open in Acapulco.
On that occasion, Kyrgios used Instagram to seemingly add to the rumours that Nadal was linked to a Spanish doping network – the Canberran used a syringe emoji while captioning a picture of him and Nadal exchanging a frosty handshake with: “I can smell the blood when I play this dude.”
Between these two exchanges, Kyrgios appeared on New York Times reporter Ben Rothenberg’s No Challenges Remaining podcast.
“He’s my polar opposite, like literally my polar opposite. And he’s super salty,” Kyrgios said.
“When he wins, it’s fine. He won’t say anything bad, he’ll credit the opponent, ‘He was a great player’. But as soon as I beat him, it’s just like, ‘He has no respect for me, my fans and no respect to the game’.
“And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? I literally played this way when I beat you the other previous times and nothing changed, nothing changed’.
“It’s not a good look for you, I feel. And then (Nadal’s former coach) Uncle Toni came out saying, ‘He lacks education’.
“I’m like, ‘Bra, I did 12 years at school, you idiot. I’m very educated. I understand that you’re upset I beat your family again’. Rafa gets me vexed.”