Flaky Nick Kyrgios finally found a coach who can get him to play hard. The problem is that coaching came from the chair umpire in his U.S. Open match Thursday.
Kyrgios was not only losing but looking disinterested and unmotivated when umpire Mohamed Lahyani came down to speak to the enigmatic Aussie. The perceived pep talk had the desired effect, and Krygios suddenly stormed back for a 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-0 second-round rally over a peeved Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
“He doesn’t need to go down. He doesn’t need to say the words he said on the video. This was not his job. I don’t think he’s a coach: He’s an umpire, and he should stay on his chair for that,” Herbert said. “I don’t think he has to go down and take the position of a coach, like you see on the WTA Tour. I don’t know yet if it would’ve changed something. I just know he doesn’t have to do that.
“Mohamed Lahyani did a mistake … I heard one thing, ‘I want to help [you].’ I think I heard him saying that. I don’t think this is appropriate for an umpire to go down and say, ‘I want to help you.’ ”
Usually when athletes complain about the ref helping their foes, it’s just hyperbole. But Herbert has a legitimate beef after Lahyani threw impartiality out the window, climbed down from his chair and gave Kyrgios a speech that seemingly turned the match and sent him into a third-round meeting with Roger Federer.
Kyrgios was a set and 0-3 down on Court 17 when he got either a lecture or a pep talk during the changeover. Either way, Lahyani overstepped his bounds in egregious fashion.
“I want to help you,” Lahyani was caught saying on video. “I’ve seen your matches: you’re great for tennis.”
After their chat, Kyrgios turned the match around and took 19 of the last 25 games to win in four sets. He forced a second-set tiebreaker, which he won, then stormed through the last two sets. He even cupped his hands to his ear to the crowd up 40-0 as he served for the match, all the while insisting the intervention didn’t help him.
“Not at all,” Kyrgios said. “The same thing happen to me. It happened in Shanghai before when we all know I had that moment in Shanghai where the referee said the same thing: ‘It’s not good for the integrity of the sport, doesn’t have a good look.’ I’m not sure it was encouragement. He said he liked me. I’m not sure if that was encouragement. He just said that it’s not a good look.
“Look, I wasn’t feeling good. I know what I was doing out there wasn’t good. I wasn’t really listening, but I knew it wasn’t a good look. It didn’t help me at all.”
Pierre-Hugues HerbertAPThe U.S. Open released a statement claiming Lahyani left his chair to check on Kyrgios’ condition, came over to him because of the noise level and let him know if “his seeming lack of interest in the match continued” he would take action.
The statement didn’t impress Herbert, who said in a statement, “I am angry against the umpire. … I am even more upset against the statement of the USTA that is clearly taking us for fools.”
Social media immediately weighed in, with WTA player Donna Vekic — whom Kyrgios crudely referred to in 2015 when he mocked Stan Wawrinka by saying, “[Thanasi] Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend” — among them.
“Didn’t know umpires were allowed to give pep talks,” Vekic tweeted, with Kyrgios firing back: “Haha IRONIC coming from someone who gets on court coaching every week of the year and also out of the US Open.”
Kyrgios eventually deleted the tweet and admitted, “I shouldn’t have tweeted so quickly after the match. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but I can assure you it wasn’t coaching.”
That’s what the USTA is determining — reviewing the situation to see if Lahyani will be disciplined. Predictably, Kyrgios didn’t think that should happen.
“I don’t believe he deserves it,” Kyrgios said.
What did Herbert think was a fair punishment?
“Maybe give me the prize money of the winner,” Herbert said, smiling. “That would be I think fair, yes.”
