Melbourne – Davis Cup player Tim Pütz has described some of the behaviour of Australian tennis pro Nick Kyrgios at the Australian Open as “too much of a good thing”.
When it’s all about entertainers and good vibes, everything’s okay. He walks on a knife edge between being an entertainer and being over the top,” the 34-year-old Frankfurt native said in Melbourne after the doubles quarter-final defeat. “What he then does in parts between the first and second serve has nothing to do with entertainment, it has nothing to do with being funny, it’s just unsportsmanlike,” Pütz said.
In a heated atmosphere, the Frankfurt player and his New Zealand doubles partner Michael Venus had previously been unable to stop the Australians Thanasi Kokkinakis and Kyrgios and missed out on a place in the semi-finals with 5:7, 6:3, 3:6. In the heated atmosphere, there were heckles between serves and applause for double faults. Kyrgios had still animated the crowd at times and indulged in some antics.
“Tennis is entertainment and Kyrgios is good for the sport in many ways,” said Pütz: “As long as there are no real rules – my goodness, then that’s the way it is. That’s why I said mentally it was very tiring. Already wild out there.” But the atmosphere was not decisive for his tennis: “I didn’t play badly because someone called in there,” said Pütz.
