Nick Krygios is continuing his run of dominance and controversy in Wimbledon 2022. The 27-year-old is set to appear in Australian court next month for allegedly assaulting his former girlfriend late last year.

Kyrgios’ attorney Jason Moffett told the press that the tennis star is aware of the charge and its seriousness. “The nature of the allegation is serious, and Mr. Kyrgios takes the allegation very seriously. While Mr. Kyrgios is committed to addressing any and all allegations once clear, taking the matter seriously does not warrant any misreading of the process Mr. Kyrgios is required to follow.”

This new development has not yet affected the star’s presence in Wimbledon, however, the ATP did release a statement following the news. “The ATP is aware of the Australian case involving Nick Kyrgios but as legal proceedings are ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time,”

Krygios recently defeated American Brandon Nakashima to move on to the quarterfinals and drew controversy on his strategy and emotional style to defeat Nakashima. Krygios admitted to attempting to throw off the American tennis player. “At the end of the fourth, complete rope-a-dope tactic. I just threw away that service game, because I knew he was in a rhythm,” he said. “He was starting to get on top of me and I kinda just wanted to throw him off a little bit. It worked.”

He also drew criticism for his attire in the competition as he again broke Wimbledon’s strict all-white dress code. Players are supposed to wear white from the time they arrive on the court to when they step off, yet the Australian tennis star wore red shoes before playing Nakashima. He is likely to be fined, yet he didn’t seem too concerned saying in his post-game presser, “It’s more attention for me. What’s that saying? Any publicity is good publicity, right? I sit here now in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon again, and I just know there’s so many people that are so upset. It’s a good feeling,”

Krygios is set to play Chilean tennis player Cristian Garin on Wednesday. This is Krygios’ third Grand Slam quarterfinal in his career and his first in over seven years. He has yet to advance the quarters in any Grand Slam.

Novak Djokovic made a permanent mark on the history of professional tennis in his win at Wimbledon, marking his 20th major title – tying him with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

“They have helped me to realize what I need to do in order to improve to get stronger mentally, physically, tactically. When I broke into the top 10 for the first time, I lost for three or four years most of the big matches that I played against these two guys and something shifted at the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. The last 10 years has been an incredible journey that is not stopping here,” Djokovic said about the two fellow tennis legends.

Djokovic certainly has the stat sheet to be considered the greatest player ever. He is the only man to defeat Federer three times at Wimbledon, and the only one to best Nadal twice at the French Open. He has held the number one ranking in the ATP more weeks than any other player and is the only person to win all nine Masters 1000 men’s singles titles (he’s done this twice).

Pete Sampras held the record for grand slam titles before this trio, winning 14. “If you would have asked when I walked off with 14 majors if three guys would pass me in the next 15 to 19 years, I would have said, no way,” Sampras said in a recent interview with Christopher Clarey.

The record is bound to be broken by one of these three players. The advances in recovery technology, nutrition, equipment and more have given longevity to many players’ careers that would otherwise be quite rare. While Nadal and Federer seem to age, though, the 34-year-old Djokovic seems to still be in his prime.

Djokovic has acknowledged the history on the line in his next major tournament. He has reiterated, though, that he tries to focus on the task at hand – sound play and winning individual games that give him the chance for tournament victories.

Djokovic has a chance at history in the U.S. Open, the last slated major for the year – he has won the previous three majors this circuit.

Nick Kyrgios will miss the rest of the season after being suspended by the men’s tour and fined an additional $25,000 by the Association of Tennis Professionals for ”tanking” a match and insulting fans.

ATP Suspends Nick Kyrgios For 8 Weeks, Fines Additional $25,000 For Tanking

The ATP said the hot-tempered, 21-year-old Australian was sanctioned for “conduct contrary to the integrity of the game” following an investigation into his behavior during a second-round loss to German qualifier Mischa Zverev last week at the Shanghai Masters, behavior that resulted in an initial $16,500 fine for “lack of best efforts,” unsportsmanlike conduct, and verbal abuse of a spectator.

Kyrgios displayed little effort during his 6-3, 6-1 defeat against Zverev, even patting easy serves over the net and walking away before his opponent’s serve had crossed the net.

The ATP added Monday that, in addition to the fine, Kyrgios will serve an eight-week suspension lasting through Jan. 15– just one day before the start of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of 2017.

However, the tour also said the suspension will be reduced to three weeks if the Australian agrees to enter “a plan of care under the direction of a sports psychologist or an equivalent plan approved by the ATP.” This would make him eligible to return on Nov. 7.

There are no regular tournaments scheduled for after Nov. 7. The only event in November is the ATP finals in London from Nov. 13-20. The 12th-ranked Kyrgrios has not qualified for the eight-player finals, so he will need to wait until next year in any case to return to the tour.

Kyrgios released a statement Monday offering another apology for his conduct in Shanghai, and saying he will return next year. He did not state whether he would enter the treatment program mandated by the ATP.

”I regret that my year is ending this way and that I will not have a chance to continue chasing the ATP finals,” Kyrgios said. ”This was an important goal for me. I do understand and respect the decision by the ATP and I will use this time off to improve on and off the court. I am truly sorry and look forward to returning in 2017.”

During the match in Shanghai where he had his outburst, Kyrgios was warned by the chair umpire about his behavior as a professional and jeered and booed by the crowd. This led the Australian to angrily retort to a fan’s taunts by yelling, ”You want to come here and play?”

In a post-match interview, Kyrgios said he didn’t care about the crowd reaction because he didn’t owe them anything. It was a day after his opening win, when he said he was tired and bored and didn’t really get time to savor his title-winning run in Tokyo over the weekend.

Kyrgios tweeted an apology following the loss: ”Not good enough today on many levels, I’m better than that. I can go on about excuses but there are none. Sorry (hash)StillAWorkInProgress.”

In the statement issued on his web site Monday, Kyrgios offered further contrition.

”The season has been a long one as I battled several injuries and other challenges towards the end of the summer,” he said. ”The Asian circuit was particularly tough after the long week and win in Tokyo and with the travel throughout the continent, my body finally just gave out in Shanghai both physically and mentally.

”This is no excuse, and I know very well that I need to apologize to the fans in Shanghai and in other parts of the world … I of course know how important the fans are to the success of our sport and I personally love the interaction with fans in the many different cities throughout the world on the tennis circuit.”

This is not the first time Kyrgios has been punished by tennis authorities due to misconduct.

In 2015, Kyrgios was banned for 28 days and fined $25,000 for making lewd remarks about Swiss great Stan Wawrinka’s girlfriend during a Rogers Cup match in Montreal.

He was also criticized for his displays at Wimbledon and the US Open, and withdrew from Rio 2016 following an argument with the Australian Olympic Committee.

SHANGHAI, CHINA – OCTOBER 12: Nick Kyrgios of Australia returns a shot against Mischa Zverev of Germany during the Men’s singles second round match on day four of Shanghai Rolex Masters at Qi Zhong Tennis Centre on October 12, 2016 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Tennis player Wayne Odesnik was given a 15-year ban by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for a second doping violation. The fairly unknown American athlete gained notoriety in 2010 when he was caught with eight vials of HGH at an Australian customs office.

He was originally given a two-year suspension, which was reduced to a year after he cooperated with officials. But he continuously maintained his innocence, claiming he never knowingly ingested HGH.

Yet, even if he was on the growth hormone, the American athlete has had a disappointing career. The highest he was ever ranked was 77th and that was way back in 2009. On top of this, the farthest he reached in a Grand Slam was the third round of Roland Garros in 2008. And finally, he only participated in one final on the ATP World Tour, the 2009 U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston, where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsIB9w5KXfc

The second violation was announced in a statement by the ITF. The organization verified that three separate tests contained various banned substances, including “metabolites of methenolone; metabolites of androst-(2,3)-en-17-one; and GHRP-6.”

The 15-year ban officially started on January 30, 2015. Furthermore, all of his tournament results from that time period — Happy Valley Challenger, Australian Open and Maui Challenger — are hereby disqualified, meaning he has to return the prize money.

Moments after ITF’s announcement, the 29-year-old athlete announced his retirement. “In December 2014, I unknowingly ingested a contaminated over-the-counter supplement. Upon learning of my positive test results, I was immediately heartbroken as words could not describe my shock and disappointment,” Odesnik said in a statement. “Being the most tested American tennis player on tour, I would never knowingly have taken any chance of consuming a banned substance.”

Still, past and current top athletes are happy with ITF’s decision, especially since most did not like Wayne’s reduced sentence in 2010. Both Andy Murray and former number one in the world Andy Roddick released tweets damning Odesnik.

https://twitter.com/andyroddick/status/578238864759750656

Murray even clarified his Tweet to BBC Sport: “It is good for tennis that they got him off tour. It is the end of his career and he can’t even come on site to events or coach. That is a good thing… He is a cheat and it is good for everyone in tennis he is dealt with in the right way.”

Even more of the soft spoken players have released statements regarding the matter, mostly applauding the decision made by the ITF. “Players and athletes should know if they cheat, they get caught,” Roger Federer told ESPN. “I’m all for a clean sport, and that’s why you’ve got to catch those guys who don’t do the things they are supposed to be doing.”

Professional tennis is back in full swing and players are preparing for the first grand slam of the year, the Australian Open. The featured photo is of German tennis player Angelique Kerber, the ninth ranked singles player in the world, and is from the Brisbane International — a smaller tournament in Brisbane, Australia, which started on Sunday. Kerber’s ferocious backhand in the above photo elevated her over Russia’s Daria Gavrilova 6-3, 7-5.

Now, Brisbane is one of five tournaments that are prior to the January 19 start of the Australian Open: basically, everything is building towards the first grand slam of the year. However, the first one is notorious for being the hardest to win: with the bounce back time between break and play being the shortest. The rest — Roland Garros aka the French Open is in May, Wimbledon is in June and the US Open takes place in late August — are all well into the season, with players already back to consistent play.

And worst of all, the five January tournaments are all over the place: from Brisbane to Doha (Qatar), many wonder what tournament is the best way to prepare? Is being closer to Australia better for resting purposes or should one work for the bigger purse in Qatar? As Reuters points out, who knows: but even in the past, living legends like Björn Borg, Venus Williams and John McEnroe all had great difficulty winning the Australian Open.

So it is certainly a toss up about who will be hoisting up the grand slam trophy in less than a month. Could it be Serena Williams, who has not won since 2010, or will the women’s draw continue to be a carousel of winners? As for the men, will Novak Djokovic make it five out of the last eight years or could Stan Wawrinka shock the world again? I am not going to even attempt to guess, but the downright unpredictability of the Australian Open is what makes it so damn fun to watch.