Tennis up-and-comer Thanasi Kokkinakis has stated that he’s faced sleepless nights following Nick Kyrgios’ “Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend” sledge to world number five Stan Wawrinka last week.
Kokkinakis said Kyrgios had apologised to him for making the comment, centred around Croatian tennis player Donna Vekic, during a match between Kyrgios and Wawrinka in Montreal.
“I let him know. I made it pretty clear that he can’t be doing that. If he’s got a problem, he’s got to say it in private,” he said, after qualifying for the Cincinnati Masters in the US.
“The way he went about it definitely wasn’t the right thing.”
The controversy followed Kokkinakis throughout the week, when his match against American Ryan Harrison became heated after Harrison reportedly sledged the youngster about the matter.
“It’s been interesting. It’s been a circus.”
“I haven’t gotten much sleep on the nights of the two incidents.”
“But luckily enough, I recovered and I’m playing a tournament at the moment, so I’m trying to focus on that and I’m happy I found a way to get the win.”
Kokkinakis has won 15 of 16 qualifying matches in 2015.