Nick Kyrgios reacts to Krejcikova-Wertheim WTA Finals controversy in simple but damning terms

Australia’s Nick Kyrgios had a one-word response for tennis journalist Jon Wertheim, who was involved in a controversy during the recently concluded WTA Finals. The last major event in the women’s tennis calendar was recently held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the first time, where the top eight players participated.

It was America’s Coco Gauff who eventually lifted the title after beating China’s Qinwen Zheng in the final with a score of 3-6, 6-4, 7-6. While the tournament remained controversial ever since it was announced because of the involvement of the Middle Eastern country, there was another controversy which took place during the event, just before the start of the semifinal between Zheng and Barbora Krejcikova. Tennis journalist Wertheim, who was working with the Tennis Channel, made an insensitive comment about the world number 10 without realising that it was going live.

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“Who do you think I am? Barbora Krejcikova? Look at the forehead when Krejcikova and Zheng take the court. Eighthead,” he said. That comment turned into a controversy as even WTA came out in defence of Krejcikova. “There is no place in sport for inappropriate comments about female athletes,” read the WTA statement. “The WTA stands in full support of Barbora’s powerful call for respect. This should be the norm for all women in all working environments. Respect is due as a right, not a privilege to be earned.”

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Wertheim quickly understood his fault and apologised in a post on his official account on the social media platform X. “I made some deeply regrettable comments off-air. I acknowledge them. I apologise for them. I reached out immediately and apologised to the player,” he wrote. Australia’s Kyrgios has also decided to give a one-word response to Wertheim in a post where he commented: “Embarrassing”. The reason behind such a comment was that Wertheim was highly critical of the former world number 13 for his comment about another tennis player, Anna Kalinskaya, where he called her ‘second serve’ below a post about her and her new boyfriend, world number one Italy’s Jannik Sinner.