Australian tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios is lashing out at people criticising a women's doubles pair who had their opponents defaulted from their French Open match for accidentally hitting a ball girl and making her cry.
Japan's Miyu Kato and Indonesia's Aldila Sutjiadi, who are the 16th seeds, were disqualified from their third-round women's doubles match on Monday morning (NZ time) after Kato lobbed a gentle one-handed backhand towards a ball girl at the other end of the court.
But unfortunately, the ball hit the girl in the side of her chest and resulted in her being in clear discount.
Umpire Alexandre Juge initially gave Kato a warning before their opponents, Czech Marie Bouzkova and Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo, argued Kato and Sutjiadi should be disqualified from the match.
After speaking to the girl and a tournament supervisor, the umpire went back up to his chair and announced the end of the match with the disqualification of Kato and Sutjiadi.
The default means Kato and Sutjiadi forfeit all their ranking points and won't see a cent of the NZD$76,000 in prize money they would've received for making the third round.
But it was Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo who received widespread criticism, with former tennis players and commentators slamming them for their "disgraceful" sportsmanship.
Former world number six Gilles Simon said he hopes Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo couldn't sleep after their poor act of sportsmanship.
He wrote on Twitter in French: "When you claim the disqualification of the opposing team when you haven't even seen the ball hit... I hope they have trouble falling asleep tonight."
"As for the decision itself... refereeing at its most stupid."
Kyrgios has now weighed in arguing that French Open officials were within their right to default Kato and Sutjiadi.
"All around the world, whether it be having people chanting your name, idolising you, getting booed at, it's always going to be a factor in sport," Kyrgios said on Twitter.
"Why are we having so many people complain about it? Also, it's not about the intent, if you hit a ball at a kid it's a default."
Kyrgios has been in the headlines a lot throughout his career for his antics on and off the court.
The world No. 26 was infamously defaulted from a match at the 2019 Rome Masters after he hurled a chair onto court and swore at a line judge.
At Wimbledon last year, Kyrgios thought Stefanos Tsitsipas should've been defaulted from their third-round clash after hitting a ball into the crowd.
It hasn't been the only controversial moment at this year's French Open.
Teen sensation Mirra Andreeva received a code violation, as per Grand Slam rules, in her first-set tie-break against Coco Gauff when she hit a ball into the crowd and it hit a spectator.
The 16-year-old later admitted she was lucky not to be defaulted.
"Right after I thought that it was a really stupid move because it was not necessary to do that," the Russian said.
"It was really bad what I did. I had thoughts [about being defaulted], but he just gave me a warning."
