Nick Kyrgios reopens BBC war of words with Andrew Castle as he calls out commentary

Nick Kyrgios, the outspoken Australian, has as soon as once more taken intention at Andrew Fortress after his BBC commentating colleague criticised the usual of play in Taylor Fritz’s fourth-round victory over Alexander Zverev at Wimbledon on Monday.

Kyrgios, on broadcasting duties owing to long-term harm considerations, took to X – previously generally known as Twitter – to accuse Fortress of being “disrespectful” and that the 60-year-old’s feedback proved that he had “most likely by no means performed tennis at a excessive stage”.

Fortress, a former British No 1 who made the second spherical of Wimbledon twice within the Nineteen Eighties, remarked through the match that “you possibly can’t say it’s been probably the most fascinating tennis, to be frank”.

On X, the 29-year-old took Fortress to job, writing: “‘Not fascinating’ – was a remark from a commentator who’s doing the Zverev & Fritz match. This alone tells me that they’ve most likely by no means performed tennis at a excessive stage. 2 of probably the most elite servers we’ve got. Fairly disrespectful. Cmon be higher.”

Monday’s incident was not the primary time that Kyrgios had publicly lambasted Fortress. Final 12 months, through the males’s singles ultimate at Wimbledon, the Australian referred to as the longstanding broadcaster a “clown” for feedback he made throughout Carlos Alcaraz’s victory over Novak Djokovic and accused him of “spoiling the match large time”. In each cases, Kyrgios has by no means referred to Fortress by identify.

He tweeted: “Whoever is the clown subsequent to [Todd] Woodbridge in that commentator field wants to simply not communicate, spoiling the match large time.”

The 2022 Wimbledon males’s singles finalist has not performed a aggressive match since June 2023, dogged by critical wrist, knee and foot illnesses and is showing as a part of the BBC’s commentary staff – alongside Fortress – for a second successive 12 months. Fortress has been the BBC’s lead commentator on all males’s singles finals for 20 years and, as a participant, reached the second spherical at Wimbledon in 1986 and 1987.