Swiatek makes exit, Nadal moves on

London – Stefanos Tsitsipas said Nick Kyrgios has an “evil side” after a stormy clash at Wimbledon on Saturday in which the victorious Australian called for his Greek opponent to be kicked out of the tournament.

The bad-tempered match overshadowed the rest of the action on day six, which included the end of Iga Swiatek’s 37-match winning streak and a routine victory for Rafael Nadal.

The mercurial Kyrgios prevailed, 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (9/7), in an incident-packed third-round match on Court One.

The contest descended into mayhem when a frustrated Tsitsipas hit the ball into the crowd after losing the second set.

Kyrgios told the umpire that Tsitsipas should be kicked out of Wimbledon, recalling the incident at the US Open in 2020 when Novak Djokovic was defaulted from the tournament after hitting a line judge with a ball.

“You can’t hit a ball into the crowd and hit someone and not get defaulted,” said the 27-year-old, who received an audible obscenity warning during the match.

He kept up his verbal jousting with the umpire, clearly unsettling Tsitsipas, who was warned over the incident and later handed a point penalty for hitting the ball in frustration towards the back of the court.

The bad feeling bubbled up again in post-match press conferences, with fourth seed Tsitsipas saying it felt like a “circus.”

“He bullies the opponents,” said the Greek, who admitted trying to hit the ball at Kyrgios.

“He was probably a bully at school himself. I don’t like bullies. I don’t like people that put other people down. He has some good traits in his character, as well but... he also has a very evil side to him, which if it’s exposed, it can really do a lot of harm and bad to the people around him.”

Tsitsipas said he wished players could “come together and put a rule in place” to curb Kyrgios’s behavior.

But Kyrgios laughed off Tsitsipas’ accusations, describing his opponent as “soft.”

Earlier, French veteran Alize Cornet took advantage of an error-strewn performance from Polish women’s world No. 1 Swiatek to triumph, 6-4, 6-2.

The 21-year-old Swiatek has not lost a match since her defeat to Jelena Ostapenko in February in Dubai, winning her past six tournaments, including the French Open.

“I know I didn’t play good tennis,” said the top seed.

Second seed Nadal, chasing a rare calendar Grand Slam, beat Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4, to set up a Last 16 match against Dutch 21st seed Botic van de Zandschulp.

Australian 19th seed Alex De Minaur beat British wild card Liam Broady in straight sets and will play Chile’s Cristian Garin in the Last 16.