Watch: Umpire gives Kyrgios pep talk

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  • Post published:August 31, 2018

Nick Kyrgios was told to ‘try harder’ by a frustrated umpire during his second-round match at the US Open on Thursday.

Kyrgios was a set and 0-3 down to Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert on Court 17 when umpire Mohamed Lahyani told the 23-year-old: ‘I want to help you. This isn’t you. I know that.’

The Australian went on to win the second set 7-6, as well as the next two sets to win the match.

Kyrgios will next play Roger Federer, who was critical of the umpire’s intervention.

‘It’s not the umpire’s role to go down from the chair. But I get what he was trying to do. He behaves the way he behaves,’ said Federer.

‘You, as an umpire, take a decision on the chair, do you like it or don’t you like it. But you don’t go and speak like that, in my opinion.

‘I don’t know what he said. I don’t care what he said. It was not just about “How are you feeling? Oh, I’m not feeling so well”. Go back up to the chair. He was there for too long.

‘It’s a conversation. Conversations can change your mindset. It can be a physio, a doctor, an umpire for that matter. That’s why it won’t happen again. I think everybody knows that.’