Nick Kyrgios despite being one of the most talented players on the ATP Tour is also the most controversial figure tennis has had since American tennis legend John McEnroe stepped-off professional tennis.
The Aussie last year was a step away from clinching the Wimbledon 2022 title but instead lost the championship round to Serbian Novak Djokovic, has certainly upped his performance, and with it also, his presence online connecting his controversial approach.
Famously acclaimed as the ‘Bad Boy of Tennis’ Kyrgios is well known for his on-court rage moments and bursting out at the crowd when felt inconvenienced, and one of those moments involved Hollywood superstar Ben Stiller which he reminisced on the Trevor Noah on The Daily Show.
In 2022, Nick Kyrgios went up against Spaniard tennis professional Rafael Nadal in a quarter-final match at the Indiana Wells Masters which surprisingly had Ben Stiller as one of its spectators.
Nick Kyrgios’ quarter-final started with a bang and exploded in all the wrong directions as it involved his tennis grudge against Rafa, a rivalry known to almost every tennis enthusiast, and famous actor Ben Stiller witnessed Nick’s temper tantrums and his dramatic loss in the tournament’s round of last eight.
During the match, a person in the stands irked Nick before he was about to serve and unfortunately caught the Aussie’s attention and was steady to ask the heckler saying “Are you good at tennis?” to which the heckler replied “No” immediately to which Nick said “Exactly so don’t tell me how to play,” and diverted his attention and pointed towards Ben Stiller to further say – “Do I tell him how to act?”
The footage of the entire incident saw itself gaining massive attention on social media, and showed Stiller chuckling when Nick pointed toward him and made his statement roasting the heckler.
🗣️ “Do I tell him how to act?!”
Nick Kyrgios responded brilliantly to a heckler, by referring to actor Ben Stiller in the Indian Wells crowd! pic.twitter.com/V25FE9cMgl
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) March 18, 2022
Harking back on the moment, Ben Stiller on comedian Noah Trevor’s show talked about his thoughts on the same saying “It was the weirdest thing, basically what happened was Nick Kyrgios, he talks to himself a lot during the matches and he kept on saying, ‘Oh man get your first serve in, get your first serve in.”
“And there was a gentleman next to me who decided when he started to serve to tell him, ‘Yeah get your first serve in.’ So Nick Kyrgios turns and goes ‘Why are you talking to me?’ “And then he looks at me and goes, ‘Do I tell him how to act?’ And I didn’t even quite hear it, so I thought he might have been talking to me – and then that was it, then apparently it went viral,” added Ben Stiller on The Daily Show.
Despite the bitter-sweet moment, Ben Stiller certainly did not regret buying a ticket to the Aussie’s match and witnessed himself be a part of an incredible showdown, which sadly did not turn in Nick’s favor.
Nick Kyrgios recalls an unbelievable shot by Roger Federer at the 2017 Miami Open
20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer has media circling clips of his immaculate performances, displaying his spectacular career of more than two decades, and recently Australian tennis pro, Nick Kyrgios, also took a moment to upload a throwback clip where he was stunned by Federer.
In the clip, the former world No. 1, playing the then match against the Aussie at the 2017 Miami Open, stunned Nick by returning his signature drop-shot, contrary to Kyrgios’ confidence to win the point and captioned the video saying “Still wondering how he got to this.”
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The ‘Swiss Maestro’, however, departed from professional tennis last year when he called in his retirement chit, depriving his fans and the global tennis community of his class and elegance.