Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash has blasted Australian Open organisers for selling tickets to a centre court practice match between Nick Kyrgios and Novak Djokovic.
Tickets sold out in just 58 minutes for the exhibition between last year’s Wimbledon finalists this Friday night, priced at $20 with proceeds going to the Australian Tennis Foundation.
“Wow Nick Kyrgios is bad for the sport! Wow what a disgrace, a national embarrassment! How dare he sell out another stadium, the arrogance,” Kyrgios tweeted in response.
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It marks one of several practice sessions between top players on Rod Laver Arena, with Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev warming up for the season opening grand slam on Wednesday – though Djokovic left early after a leg injury.
But Cash delivered his ire at the Kyrgios-Djokovic event in particular, which Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley declared would be an “extravaganza”.
“What’s quite extraordinary, it’s actually hard to believe, Tennis Australia is putting on an event, on centre court, for Nick and Djokovic – I don’t know, is Novak gonna play, has he pulled out of it?” Cash said on SEN’s Sportsday.
“In what country, in what grand slam – would you have Wimbledon suddenly pulling out centre court or court 1 because Andy Murray needed a practice match?
“It’s hard to believe, they certainly wouldn’t do it at the French Open. There’s kids day and whatever and you go and play that. At the French Open it wouldn’t happen.
“They’ve bent over backwards to help Nick to get some matches and to do this, I don’t know.”
Cash was also confused by Kyrgios’ recent comments suggesting he wasn’t interested in playing for Australia while there was a lack of support for him back home.
“Maybe if Australia embraced me a little bit more, I would play it (Davis Cup) and bring home the trophy,” Kyrgios told AAP.
“But who knows?”
“Lack of communication” Hewitt on Nick | 00:56
Cash responded: “It’s beyond my ability to be able to understand what’s going on in Nick Kyrgios’ head, I think for most people.
“I think he’s a good kid and he means well, but you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say oh I’ve done this stuff for charity, but I won’t represent my country, why won’t you love me? I behave like an idiot and then wait a minute I donate some money, I’m a nice guy.
“I think he means well and we should always give him the benefit of the doubt in the end.”
Kyrgios is considered one of the dark horses to win the Australian Open but did not play in the United Cup warm-up tournament after suffering an ankle injury at an exhibition event in the Middle East.
Asked what he thinks of the Canberran’s chances of winning his home grand slam, Cash said: “Not much.
“He’s going to struggle with limited preparation. We’re putting high expectations on him … if he gets through to the second week it’d be a bloody good effort.”
