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Cincinnati - Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis, the subject of a controversial barb by pal Nick Kyrgios to Stan Wawrinka at Montreal, had some controversy of his own in qualifying for the Cincinnati Masters.
According to a Fox Sports report, Kokkinakis and American Ryan Harrison were involved in a heated match Saturday night during which chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani twice had to climb down and separate the players.
Kokkinakis was agitated by a pair of call overrules Lahyani made on first-set break points in Harrison's favor, pressing his complaints to annoy Harrison.
Kokkinakis won the set and then confronted Harrison, who drew Kyrgios into his complaints by complaining about "new age little kids" and yelling sarcastically at the Aussie "Your crew is 'really cool.'"
After the match, which Kokkinakis won, Harrison said he thought the Aussie was trying to start another conflict by not letting go of the handshake at the net.
"These kids, they have got to get under control," Harrison said to the umpire in clear earshot of Kokkinakis. "They are going to get hurt."
Harrison, 23, then spoke directly about the comment Kyrgios made to Wawrinka about his girlfriend and Kokkinakis.
"They are going to get hurt," Harrison said. "(Kokkinakis) is 19. If he wants to get into it, I will bury him. Wawrinka should have decked Kyrgios and I should deck that kid."
"I knew at 17, 18, 19 that there was just a line that you didn't cross," Harrison told Fox after the match.
"And you certainly didn't try to seek after guys the way that Thanasi kind of sought after me for an altercation after the match.
"These kids, if they keep thinking they can just come at people and instigate, someone is not going to be OK with that. The wrong guy on the wrong day, you never know what could have happened.
"Stan Wawrinka is an icon for the game right now, but what happens if Stan goes up and confronts him in the locker room and Kyrgios is not apologetic and makes another sarcastic remark? Do you fault Stan for wanting to grab the guy? I wouldn't, personally. But Stan knows if he does that he's going to get suspended."
