Nick Tsagaris - US Open: Nick Kyrgios Earns Controversial Win After Receiving Umpire Pep Talk

An extraordinary mid-match pep talk from the chair umpire has fired Nick Kyrgios into a US Open third-round blockbuster with Roger Federer in New York.

Swedish official Mohamed Lahyani is already under fire for his unprecedented intervention but Kyrgios rolls on after pulling off a drama-charged 4-6 7-5 6-3 6-0 comeback win over Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Kyrgios was trailing 3-0 in the second set, having thrown away the first on a wild second-serve double-fault, when Lahyani left his chair to beg the Australian to start trying for the sake of the paying crowd and to avoid being sanctioned — again — for not giving his best effort.

"I want to help you. I want to help you," Lahyani said.

"I've seen your matches: you're great for tennis.

"Nick, I know this is not you."

The US Open released a statement from tournament referee Brian Earley, in which it was suggested Lahyani only stepped down from his chair due to the level of noise in the stadium and that the experienced umpire was checking whether Kyrgios was suffering an injury or not.

Kyrgios said, "Okay, just call the trainer to the court and I'll try."

But when the trainer arrived and asked what Kyrgios needed treatment for, the Australian said, "I don't know, check my wrist or something … can you just stay out here for like two minutes?"

The umpire's controversial "coaching" was savaged on social media, with fans furious about his perceived bias towards Kyrgios and claiming it was unfair on Herbert.

Kyrgios 'not to blame'

The USTA, already under siege over a succession of rules blunders this grand slam, was also understood to be unimpressed with Lahyani's conduct and investigating the incident.

But it certainly seemed to work for Kyrgios, who hauled himself back into the contest having looked utterly disinterested in the early stages.

Yawning one second, Kyrgios delivered a return winner the next to break Herbert to get back on serve at 4-5 in the second set before offering a subdued fist pump towards his box.

He clinched the tiebreaker to draw level and then break Herbert early in the third set to take command.

Totally revitalised, Kyrgios dropped just three games in the final two sets, sealing victory after two hours and 47 minutes.

Herbert wrote in a statement — in both French and English — that he did not blame Kyrgios for the intervention, but said questions needed to be asked of umpire Lahyani.

"I did not hear the discussion between Lahyani and Nick and it did not affect me at all," the Frenchman wrote.

"Nick from his side is not to blame as he did not ask for anything. But his behaviour and motivation on court changed from this moment and then he dominated the match.

"On the other hand, after seeing the video, I am angry against the umpire.

"He should not go down of [sic] his chair and try to reason [with] Nick. Did this action affect the game? We will never know."

Herbert also hit out at the United States Tennis Association [USTA] after they released a statement siding with Lahyani, suggesting the umpire should not be sanctioned.

"I am even more upset against the statement of the USTA that is clearly taking us for fools," Herbert said.

"[To] err is human but I still wait for explanations.

"When we players are making mistakes on court we are sanctioned."

Kyrgios was also active on social media, hitting back on twitter at Croatian women's player Donna Vekic after the world number 41 weighed in on the matter, referencing that women players are able to receive on-court coaching on the WTA Tour.

'It won't happen again': Federer

Federer later advanced to the third round with a straight-sets win over Frenchman Benoit Paire, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4, confirming a Saturday showstopper with Kyrgios — almost certainly under lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, world tennis's biggest stage.

The five-time US Open champion said he did not think it was a good look, when asked about the incident after winning his match.

"It's not the umpire's role to go down from the chair, but I get what he was trying to do," the second-seeded Swiss said.

"He [Kyrgios] behaves the way he behaves. 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."

Asked after the match what the umpire was saying to him when he trailed by a set and a break, Kyrgios said: "He was just concerned about how I was playing, like, 'Nick are you okay?'

"I know what I was doing out there wasn't good. I wasn't really listening to him [Lahyani]. Didn't help me at all.

"He [Herbert] let me back into that set. He should have just served it out.

"I stayed out here in the second set. I had no real choice."

Millman, de Minaur also progress

Elsewhere at the US Open, Australian John Millman scored one of the biggest wins of his career to charge into the third round.

Millman, the world number 55, upset 14th-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to progress to the last 32 for the second straight year at Flushing Meadows.

A winner over Kyrgios last year, Millman was thrilled to embark on another great run in the Big Apple.

The Queenslander's victory set up a clash with unseeded Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin, himself a surprise straight-sets winner over Korean young gun Hyeon Chung.

Victory over the world number 84 would catapult Millman into a last-16 showdown with either Kyrgios or 20-time grand slam champion Roger Federer.

Alex de Minaur also made a fuss-free entry to the third round.

The teenage ace could hardly have been more impressive in taking out highly rated young American Frances Tiafoe 6-4, 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 to reach the last 32 for the second successive grand slam.

"I had to play my best tennis today," de Minaur said.

"All credit to Frances, I just had to be very tough throughout the whole match and try to keep my concentration and not get down on myself and always stay positive.

De Minaur next plays Croatian seventh seed Marin Cilic, the 2014 champion, who easily dispatched Polish qualifier Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0, 6-0.

Matt Ebden and Ajla Tomljanovic both lost.

In a high-quality thriller, Tomljanovic missed a match point deep in the third set of a 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4) defeat at the hands of Czech doubles specialist Katerina Siniankova, while Ebden ran of steam against Philipp Kohlschreiber, going out 6-7 (1-7), 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 to the German.

Wozniacki humbled as other women's seeds progress

Second seed Caroline Wozniacki fell to a straight sets defeat to world number 36, Ukranian Lesia Tsurenko.

This year's Australian Open champion was humbled 6-4, 6-2 on the Louis Armstrong stadium show court in the evening session.

Elsewhere in the women's draw, the majority of the seeds continued their progression with minimal fuss, although fourth seed Angelique Kerber did need three sets to see off Swede Johanna Larsson 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

Fifth seed Petra Kvitova dispatched Chinese world number 79 Yafan Wang in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3 and last years finalist Madison Keys breezed past fellow countrywoman Bernarda Pera in just 72 minutes, 6-4, 6-1.

However there was disappointment for 11th-seed Daria Kasatkina and Canadian favourite Eugenie Bouchard, who both bowed out in straight sets to Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Marketa Vondrousova respectively.

By: abc.net.au

Nick Tsagaris - US Open: Novak Djokovic Overcomes Nausea And The Heat To Reach The Second Round At Flushing Meadows

Novak Djokovic has overcome nausea in New York's hot conditions to advance to the second round of the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

Djokovic — who is seen as one of the favourites for this year's tournament — beat Hungary's Marton Fucsovics 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 in punishing temperatures that prompted officials to observe a heat rule for men's singles matches for the first time.

The players took a 10-minute break between the third and fourth sets to help them cope with temperatures climbing above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 degrees Celsius).

The pair, who were not allowed to speak to their coaches during the break, spent the downtime side-by-side, "naked in the ice baths", Djokovic said in a post-match broadcast interview.

"It was quite a magnificent feeling, I must say," he added.

After claiming the first set, a visibly exhausted Djokovic smashed his racket as Fucsovics led 3-2 in the second.

In between the action, both players draped themselves in ice towels and at one point Djokovic sat shirtless in his seat. He also asked for a sick bucket to be placed near his chair.

The Serb came roaring back in the third set, however, clawing his way from 3-1 down before sweeping Fucsovics in the fourth.

"I had to find a way to dig myself out of the trouble," Djokovic said.

"I think that was a turning point. 4-3 in the third when he was serving, I managed to play a good game."

Djokovic was back at the US Open for the first time since 2016 after claiming his fourth Wimbledon title this year and completing a sweep of Masters series events.

"I was praying that I got to feel better because I wasn't feeling great for most of the first three sets," said sixth seed Djokovic.

"I want to thank the US Open for allowing us to have a 10-minute break after the third set. We both needed it."

Djokovic missed the US Open last year because of an elbow injury and was playing his first match in Flushing Meadows since losing the 2016 final to Stan Wawrinka.

Federer breezes through to second round

Roger Federer made light of energy-sapping conditions to brush past Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 in his opening match at the US Open.

Federer kept his time on court to a minimum with a masterclass of serve-and-volley tennis, pulling the industrious world number 177 from one side of the court to the other at will.

Federer, the second seed, broke the Japanese lefthander in the opening game of the one-sided encounter and never looked back, rattling through his service games with a minimum of fuss to wrap up the first set in 28 minutes.

The Swiss took 35 minutes to close out the second and, with Nishioka firmly on the ropes, started the third by racing to a 4-0 lead before his Japanese opponent held serve.

Nishioka rallied briefly at the end, denying Federer the chance to serve out the set and battling back to 5-4 with his first break of serve.

But Federer put his beleaguered opponent out of his misery in his next service game, wrapping up the victory in one hour and 52 minutes.

Next up for the Swiss is a second-round clash with unseeded Frenchman Benoit Paire.

In other men's matches, German fourth seed Alexander Zverev swept through his opening round encounter, beating Canada's Peter Polansky 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 in a little over an hour and a half.

Seventh seed Marin Cilic was a beneficiary of a retirement, as Romania's Marius Copil quit in the third set of their match when down 7-5, 6-1, 1-1.

Diego Schwartzman (13th seed) won an all-Argentinian first round match, defeating Federico Delbonis 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2, while Italy's Fabio Fognini came from a set down to beat American Michael Mmoh 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).

By: abc.net.au

Nick Tsagaris - From A Special Relationship To A 'Special Place In Hell'

When Donald Trump fired off his bitter character assessment of the Canadian Prime Minister — a man he proclaimed to be "very dishonest and weak" — the US President wasn't just walking away from a hard-fought agreement between G7 leaders, signed hours earlier.

For many observers, it was confirmation that relations between the two North American leaders had reached a personal low that defies comparison in recent history.

Indeed, we haven't heard of such animosity between the Canadian prime minister and the US president since the last time Justin Trudeau lived at the prime minister's residence.

The year was 1972, Trudeau Jr was just a baby and his dad Pierre was in power.

Like today, the bone of contention in that falling-out was also trade policies, and specifically White House protectionism, which led Nixon to infamously describe Trudeau Sr as "a pompous egghead" and a "clever son of a bitch".

The spat culminated in Richard Nixon standing up in Canadian parliament to effectively pronounce the special relationship between the two countries to be dead.

"It is time for us to recognise: that we have very separate identities; that we have significant differences; and that nobody's interests are furthered when these realities are obscured," Mr Nixon told his audience.

The difference with this week's falling-out is that while Mr Nixon had kept his caustic character assessment of his counterpart private, Mr Trump's outburst of personal contempt for Trudeau Jr was broadcast to the whole world.

And Mr Trump's advisors were quick to join in lockstep with the rancour.

"There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad-faith diplomacy with President Donald J Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door," presidential adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News.

So how did we get to this situation where the White House is accusing its northern neighbour — a so-called backstabbing, double-crossing weakling — of betrayal?

Relations under Trump

Protectionist mantras were a recurring theme in Mr Trump's election campaign, with most of his acerbic barbs directed against Mexico and China.

When the Trump presidency became an unexpected reality, the Canadian Government took quick action to promote a counternarrative.

Mr Trudeau's administration embarked on a charm offensive — albeit one that involved judo-like handshakes — as he attempted to persuade Mr Trump the current arrangements created jobs for Americans.

At the centre of it all was NAFTA, a free trade agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico, which Mr Trump described as a "jobs killer" that he wanted to tear up.

Canadian politicians flocked to rust belt states in a concerted effort to make the case for a continuation for the NAFTA framework.

By May 2017, the Trump administration announced its intention to renegotiate the trade pact in Americans' favour, arguing Canada had out-manoeuvred previous administrations.

This allegedly unfair playing field, Mr Trump contended, meant that Canada found itself in a competitive advantage across industries as varied as dairy, lumber and energy.

Nevertheless Mr Trudeau persevered with his optimistic entreaties until Mr Trump announced his hard-ball trade negotiation strategy — tariffs on aluminium and steel imported from allied nations.

The US is Canada's largest trading partner by a considerable margin, and Canada exports more steel and aluminium to the US than any other country.

The news of Mr Trump's proposal left many Canadians in shock.

"We're pretty consistently flabbergasted that Canada is at the top of the hit parade of trade villains in Trump's eyes," the chief economist at the Bank of Montreal, Douglas Porter, said at the time.

The White House justification for the tariffs — national security — appeared to add insult to injury, with Mr Trudeau describing the reasoning as "simply ridiculous".

The escalating rhetoric culminated in a surreal telephone conversation where Mr Trump defended his strategy by suggesting to Mr Trudeau that Canadians were responsible for burning down the White House.

(British troops did burn down the White House back in the War of 1812, but Canada wasn't even confederated until 1867.)

G7 showdown

By the time the G7 summit began in Quebec, Mr Trudeau appeared to be in an awkward negotiating position.

Negotiators struggled to decide upon even a minimalist joint commitment that addressed the deep concerns everyone held about the trade dispute.

When the world leaders convened around a bonfire for a Cirque du Soleil performance on Friday night, one can only imagine the contortionist manoeuvres performed on stage resonated with some of its audience.

Meanwhile, G7 officials cast doubt on whether a final communique would emerge from the summit.

Yet despite such reports, a compromise agreement was eventually hammered out, expressing the shared economic aspirations of the countries.

The success led even Mr Trump to momentarily abandon his anti-Canadian posturing, telling reporters Mr Trudeau had hosted a wonderful summit and their relationship was "very good".

And by the time Mr Trudeau faced the press to announce the breakthrough deal, Mr Trump was already en route to meet Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

Fielding questions from reporters, Mr Trudeau reiterated the US tariffs were unjust, his Government planned to go ahead with retaliatory measures, and that he had told Mr Trump as much.

"We did not take lightly to the fact that it's based on a national security reason that for Canadians, who either themselves, or whose parents, community members, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with American soldiers in far-off lands and conflicts from the first world war onwards, that it's kind of insulting," Mr Trudeau told journalists, echoing remarks he had made earlier.

When news of his comments reached Air Force One, Mr Trump resorted to his diplomatic channel of choice — Twitter — to wage his rebuke.

Summit's aftermath

Other G7 leaders were stunned by the last-minute withdrawal, uniting to express their dismay that the hard-fought communique was now abandoned.

Germany's Angela Merkel said Mr Trump's decision was "depressing, " and France's Emmanuel Macron concurred.

"International cooperation could not be dictated by fits of anger and throwaway remarks," he said.

On the domestic front, Mr Trudeau's position has received bipartisan support.

His predecessor, Stephen Harper, has questioned why Mr Trump appeared obsessed with its trade relations with Canada.

"Canada is the biggest single purchaser of US goods and services in the world — it's not China, it's not Mexico, it's not Britain, it's not Germany. It's Canada. So it just seems to me this is the wrong target," the former conservative prime minister told Fox News.

Such unity from his domestic rivals must surely be cold comfort for Mr Trudeau, after his summit that produced no consensus, and the realisation his truculent neighbour would rather spend his time with a North Korean dictator.

By: abc.net.au