Earlier this year, notorious Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios was reduced to tears when talking about the impact of the bushfires ravaging his country.

It was his pledge to donate to the cause that led to sports stars, and celebrities, around the world digging into their pockets, and for that he deserves credit.

Sadly, though, an on-court meltdown is never far away, and he’s particularly fond of hurling abuse at the umpires.

His latest outburst came at the Australian Open, during his third-round match on Saturday against Russian Karen Khachanov, which he ended up winning.

During the fourth set of his third-round match, Kyrgios won a great point against his opponent that ended with a dive.

You can see that dive from the 1:20 mark:

During that dive, Kyrgios injured his hand, and he was further angered by the fact that umpire Renaud Lichtenstein dealt him a time violation when he set his towel down, rather than hand it to the ball person.

That’s fair enough, because he didn’t want to throw a towel with blood on at a young child, but then he lost his cool and went at Lichtenstein, calling him ‘stupid’.

If you want to skip straight to the drama, start from the one-minute mark:

As I said earlier, he has a point, but the histrionics really are tiresome. He is 24 now, it’s time to grow up.

Karma can be a nasty thing, though, and Kyrgios’ win meant he had to face Spaniard Rafa Nadal.

The same Rafa Nadal he mocked earlier in the tournament:

Meanwhile, Rafa is out there winning over fans with how he treated a ball girl he accidentally struck with an errant shot.

An even better retort from Rafa – he just beat Kyrgios in the fourth round.

[source:usatoday]