Nick Kyrgios has sparked riotous scenes never witnessed before at the Australian Open — and the world is not happy.
Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis are through to the semi-finals in the men’s doubles draw after they stirred up a crowd atmosphere never seen before at the Australian Open.
Each match in their doubles campaign has ramped up and the brand new Kia Arena was treated to absolute madness.
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Their doubles battle against No. 6 seeded pair Tim Puetz, from Germany, and Michael Venus, from New Zealand went berserk when the Aussie duo took the opening set and it was completely off the rails by the time they wrapped up a 7-5 3-6 6-3 after more than two hours.
With the crowd pumped up, there was no way for officials to contain the mayhem with fans yelling out in the middle of points and even repeatedly in the middle of Venus’ service action.
There were a series of dramatic moments in the second set which further whipped the crowd into a frenzy inside Kia Arena.
And the Special K’s want the atmosphere to continue into the rest of the grand slam because, as Kyrgios eloquantly put it, the Aussies “want to win this f***ing thing”.
Kokkinakis added he wanted the crowd to “sink p*** and come here.”
“When we walk through that tunnel, there is no feeling like it. We don’t want anything else. This is perfect,” Kokkinakis said.
“I haven’t played in a doubles match, even a singles match with this kind of atmosphere.”
So semi-final opponents and third seeds Horacio Zeballos from Argentina and Spaniard Marcel Granollers may want to watch out.
It was a drama packed match which included Kyrgios being warned for time violations on his serve with a tactic of tossing up the ball several times before entering into his true serve motion.
That prompted an angry outburst from Venus who demanded chair umpire Eva Asderaki do something about it.
A short time later, Kyrgios was also seen complaining to the chair umpire about Venus’ serve — and the time he was taking in between points.
The pair were seen jawing away at each other multiple times in every service game towards the end of the second set.
The heated exchanges only further turned the crowd against Venus — who appeared to delight in the barrage of verbal abuse.
Former Aussie star Sam Groth was stunned watching the game from inside the court.
“This is unprecedented,” Groth said on Channel 9.
“Have you ever seen a tennis match go this way? I haven’t. Kyrgios and Venus are completely at each other right now here in the third set.”
Nine commentator Tom Rehn said: “This place has reached a level even we have not seen or heard before. Not sure I have ever seen anything quite like this”.
9 News Melbourne’s Corey Norris added: “If only all doubles matches were this spiteful! How bloody good. Love that Venus is giving it back to Kyrgios.”
However, many other commentators were scathing of the behaviour from the local fans — and Kyrgios’ exuberant reactions.
Veteran Australian journalist Monica Attard posted on Twitter: “The crowd behaviour made it unwatchable. What a disgrace. Do something @TennisAustralia @AustralianOpen”.
Sports media commentator John Dean wrote: “I have never seen a doubles game like this in my life. Insane”.
Nine Newspapers reporter Sam Phillips also described the atmosphere as “farcical” in a post on Twitter.
Sports broadcaster Mark Gottlieb pointed to the fact it had replaced the Nadal-Shapovalov match on the main Nine channels.
“It feels like there could dead set be a fight on the court just days after there was almost one in the dressing rooms. This match has gone off the rails,” he wrote.
“Justifies the decision to show the doubles over Nadal. This is must watch TV – like watching a car crash.”