Captain Wally defends Nick Kyrgios over Stan Wawrinka sledge

Wally Masur defends Nick Kyrgios over Stan Wawrinka sledge

Australia's Davis Cup captain Wally Masur has backed under-fire tennis player Nick Kyrgios, telling Fox Sports News that the sledging controversy has been blown out of proportion.

"When I actually saw the incident, what was fairly obvious is that Nick had his back turned to Stan, he was 90 feet away, and he mumbled it under his breath, I mean no way was he actually being confrontational," he said on Friday morning.

"It's just a case of the court-side microphone, which is pretty amazing what it picked up, picked up the audio.
"It wasn't the scenario I had in my mind when I read the headlines."

Masur's comments come at a time when condemnation has been virtually universal.

On Friday, the controversial young star, who was vehemently booed at the Montreal Masters ahead of his straight-sets loss to John Isner, was also criticised by top seed Novak Djokovic.

"Some players have problems to control themselves on the court. Sometimes when you go through the emotional challenges, it slips out of your mouth," said the close friend of Wawrinka after his victory over American Jack Sock.

"But again, there's no excuse for what he has said.

"He was fined, he deserved it. I think he's going to learn a lesson in a hard way. Hopefully this won't happen to him anymore.

"I understand that every player goes through certain tantrums, emotional ups and downs during the match. In a big fight and at this level, I understand.

"But it's not, I would say, fair, and there's no excuse of directing your tantrums to your opponent, especially to somebody that is not even there."

Djokovic said he had no problem personally with Kyrgios, but hoped he would mature.

"He's young, he's definitely one of the players that everybody's looking to. His quality of tennis is really remarkable for his age. He's doing very well. I've never had any problems with him personally. Off the court we had nice chats, practised with each other."