Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios revealed he received social media abuse and death threats following his semifinal exit in Houston.
On Saturday, Kyrgios suffered a straight-set defeat to big-serving American Reilly Opelka in the Houston semifinal.
After the match, an Instagram used that goes by name “xc13” messaged Kyrgios: “You are f****** dead watch your back.”
Kyrgios posted the screenshot of the threat on his Instagram Story and captioned it: “Nice threats my g.”
Unfortunately, players getting abused after losses has become a common thing as angry bettors have a hard time controlling themselves after losing their money.
However, nothing can justify an abuse and death threats.
Kyrgios loses after a blatant missed call
At 5-5 in the second set, Kyrgios had a 30-15 in his game when the chair umpire missed out on an evident Opelka out.
Kyrgios lost the point and immediately started voicing his frustration.
In the following point, a livid Kyrgios hit an unforced errors, which gave Opelka a break point.
Kyrgios continued to rant and he lost the game after being hit by a point penalty.
In the following game, Opelka served out for a 6-3 7-5 win.
”F***! F****** out! How are you not calling it? It’s an absolute joke,” Kyrgios shouted on the court.
After the match, Kyrgios asked the chair umpire: “Do you feel bad? I don’t think you feel bad.”
During the changeover after the 11th game of the second set, the chair umpire appeared to admit to Kyrgios that he missed out on a call.
“Haha again… falls all on me. Umpires seem to make these mistakes a little too often. A lot of players seemed dissatisfied with the performance of them this week in Houston. More punishment? Potentially new umpires? Semi final, ‘I missed it nick’ on clay 5-5 in the second set,” Kyrgios wrote on Twitter after the match.
It was Kyrgios’ first clay tournament of the season and at the same time the last as he is expected to return to action when the grass season behins.