"It was ridiculous" - Umpire responsible for stopping Ben Shelton's Wimbledon 2R slammed by Nick Kyrgios for 'stupid' excuse

Nick Kyrgios recently gave his views on Ben Shelton's little squabble with the chair umpire during his second round match at 2025 Wimbledon on Friday (July 4). The Aussie believes that the umpire shouldn't have taken the limelight as play was called off during the American's outing, claiming that it painted the sport in a "bad" light.

Kyrgios hasn't played on the ATP Tour since the Miami Open in March, suffering a layoff due to a recurring knee injury. The 30-year-old withdrew from this week's Wimbledon as well but hasn't refrained from media appearances.

Earlier this week, Nick Kyrgios expressed his disapproval of the chair umpire in Ben Shelton's second-round match against Austalia's Rinky Hijikata at Wimbledon, telling talkSport that the fans didn't want the umpire to intervene and stop play as Shelton led 6-2, 7-5, 5-4.

"Yeah, it was ridiculous in my opinion. I was serving out the match at 5-4, both players were adamant, they wanted to continue. That's where the umpire sometimes want to be involved. Like no one in the match came to see him affect the match the way he did," Nick Kyrgios told talkSport

"It's just I just feel like you didn't need to say anything, just let them play," he added. "If Shelton felt like he was the one serving, if he feels like there is light to play, and Rinky, a fellow Australian, he's a low maintenance guy, he couldn't care less."

Although the rules at the grasscourt Major necessitate that play is supposed to be stopped if it gets too dark, the 10th seed lets his emotions get the better of him and approaches the chair in a huff. He had to ultimately be restrained by the supervisor before a brief conversation with him. That said, Kyrgios overlooked that while attributing more blame towards the umpire in the altercation.

"It's things like this, I don't like because it looks bad in our sport and I just didn't like it at all. It's just stupid," he added.

Later on Saturday (July 5), the American came on court following the resumption of his match and needed just a minute to seal a straight-set victory against his lower-ranked opponent.

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Nick Kyrgios hasn't played at Wimbledon since runner-up finish three years ago

Nick Kyegios lost in four sets to Novak Djokovic in 2022 Wimbledon final | Image Source: Getty

Nick Kyrgios, meanwhile, will be ruing the fact that he hasn't had the chance to participate at Wimbledon since 2022, which marked his career's best tournament campaign as he reached the title match beating some good players.

The former World No. 13 was helpless in the final against Novak Djokovic though, as the Serb returned every big serve that came his way before earning a comprehensive four-set victory. He then pulled out of the 2023 tournament, citing a wrist injury for which he had undergone surgery. With his absence from the third Major event of the year, he remains well outside the top 600 ATP rankings.