“Hope to See Him”: Karen Khachanov Takes the High Road Over Nick Kyrgios Spat

In Nick Kyrgios’ latest Twitter feud, he and Russian ATP star Karen Khachanov traded blows with each other. It all started when Khachanov was unhappy with Kyrgios over his comments on tennis legend Mats Wilander.

These arguments can turn out to be never-ending, surfacing every now and then. However, Khachanov seems to have taken the high road after his latest comments on Kyrgios.

He was asked about his off-court battle after his French Open 2020 match on Saturday and before his fourth-round clash against Novak Djokovic. The 15th seed said that Kyrgios has his opinion of helping the society. However, he wishes to see him play soon.

Karen Khachanov douses the fire

“I would love honestly that he’s coming. But he has his opinion that he tries to help the society to fight against the pandemic,” Khachanov said.

“Also, it’s difficult to travel from Australia. I get that. Yeah, I don’t know if he will continue this year. I don’t think so. I hope to see him next year in Australia.”

Going back to the origin of the spat, Kyrgios harshly criticized Swedish tennis great Mats Wilander who had earlier criticized Andy Murray for a bad performance. Khachanov then advised Kyrgios to show some respect to fellow players.

A back-and-forth then followed on Twitter, which ended with Kyrgios calling Khachanov an “absolute pelican.”

Khachanov’s expectation from Nick Kyrgios

While Kyrgios is not present in Paris, Khachanov was asked about his argument with the Australian player. Khachanov said he only wanted to see more respect between players.

“I don’t have any problem with Nick and I always said that I respect him… I don’t know why he acts sometimes the way he acts. Maybe, you should ask him and not me,” the 24-year-old said a few days ago.

“I’m not saying that you need to do something unbelievable, but just to show respect, especially to players in our sport which done a lot of things,” he said further.

Meanwhile, at the French Open 2020, Khachanov has endured two tough battles on his way to the Round of 16. This included a nervy second-round match against Jiri Vesely, which saw three tie-breaks over four sets.

Read: “Need to Show Respect”: Karen Khachanov Opens up on Ugly Spat With Nick Kyrgios