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Australian tennis legend Todd Woodbridge says he doesn’t understand why referee Nacho Forcadell hit Nick Kyrgios with a time violation in his second round match at the Murray River Open.
Kyrgios refused to play after being cautioned, instead calling the supervisor, insisting he had started his service move before the clock reached zero.
The incident happened late in Kyrgios’ 6-2, 7-6 victory over Harry Bourchier.
“Tennis is not for him (the referee), it’s an extra to make sure everything goes well,” Kyrgios complained to supervisor Cedric Mourier.
Woodbridge thinks Kyrgios has scored a point.
“I never understood a referee giving Nick a time serving violation, because he’s on the fastest player out there,” he told Wide World of Sports.
“If there was a reason, after an extraordinarily long moment, that he was approaching the time limit, you would give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“In the next three serves he would probably be 30 seconds under the limit, with 10 seconds on each point.”
Bourchier seemed annoyed with the whole rally, which came at a pivotal point in the game, with Kyrgios serving at 5-5 in the second set.
“In this scenario, Nick was right,” said Woodbridge.
“What he has to do is manage the way he runs things, because it’s still something he can improve.
“If you want respect, you have to give respect.”
Woodbridge declared Kyrgios, as well as world No. 1 Ash barty, are well prepared for next week’s Australian Open, even allowing today’s suspension from all preliminary tournaments due to a positive COVID-19 test in Melbourne.
He said Kyrgios and Barty were the two players with the most to prove this week, having not played for almost a year, unlike Alex de Minaur and John Millman who both resumed play after the shutdown. in 2020.
Barty lost a set in her match yesterday against Marie Bouzkova, but advanced to the quarter-finals of the Yarra Valley Classic, while Kyrgios advanced to the third round of the Murray River Over.
“Barty and Kyrgios have actually had a good preparation now,” said Woodbridge.
“Barty had a tough game yesterday, that’s exactly what you need, it puts pressure on you and you have to adapt to pass.
“Kyrgios also went through a tough test in the first round.
“They will both know where their form is, and the game is so much more demanding on the body, so they will feel it physically.
“They’re in good shape and they probably couldn’t have asked for better. They both had wins which is good for confidence.”
De Minaur was not so lucky, facing Roberto Bautista Agut and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the ATP Cup.
But Woodbridge said that’s not a major concern heading into the Open.
“We ended up with the toughest group, and a really tough first game against Spain. Alex has played two really strong matches, he will have a little confidence in himself after losing twice, but we have to remember that he’s played two of the top 15 players, and that’s a tough one in any week.
“His performance was pretty good.
“We beat Greece, which you’d expect considering how good their number two player is, but overall the players got what they needed to be ready for next week. “
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