NICK KYRGIOS has revealed he suffered vile racial abuse by a fan during his Stuttgart Open semi-final defeat to Andy Murray.
The Scot won 7-6 6-2 to set up a final against Matteo Berrettini on Sunday.
But it was Kyrgios’ on-court fury which took centre stage.
After losing the first set on a tie-break, Kyrgios was told off by the umpire and then received a point penalty for smashing his racket on the ground and against the chair.
After a double fault saw him broken on his serve at the start of the second set, the Aussie, 27, tried to break his racket again and walked off raging.
The no-nonsense umpire gave him a game penalty which meant he forfeited a game and was 2-0 down, while the tournament supervisor was then called to try to calm down the fuming world No 78.
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However, Kyrgios later took to Instagram to say he lost his composure after suffering vile racist abuse from the crowd.
He wrote: “When is this going to stop? Dealing with racial slurs from the crowd?
“I understand that my behaviour isn’t the best all the time — but ‘you little BLACK SHEEP’, ‘shut up and play’… little comments like this are NOT ACCEPTABLE.
“When I retaliate to the crowd, I get penalised. This is messed up.”
As for Murray, he has made his first final on grass since winning Wimbledon in 2016.
The Scot beamed: “It has been a long road since the last final, it has been a few years, a lot of ups and downs.
“But I kept going, I kept working and finally managed to get to another one.
“So, I’m happy and proud of the effort I put in to get back there.
“I was a little bit more solid in the tie-break, I made a lot of returns, asked the question of him.
“On these courts when it is playing quick, the sets often come down to one or two points.
“I was a little bit more solid and secure at the end of the first set. The first set was high quality.
“In the second set, Nick was very frustrated, and I didn’t have to work as hard.
“You are always battling yourself on court as well as the opponent. It’s one of the difficult things about individual sports.
“Look, Nick has the potential to be one of the best players in the world, there is absolutely no question about that.
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“But he obviously got very frustrated and made it a lot easier for me.
“I’m happy to be in the final. I have played well this week and got a great opportunity against Matteo.”
