"Stan Wawrinka was trying to hit me in the head" - Nick Kyrgios dismisses his controversial exchange with Swiss as 'good old fashioned trashtalk'

Nick Kyrgios recently cast his mind back to his 2015 controversy with Stan Wawrinka. The incident came at that year's Rogers Cup (now known as the National Bank Open), during Kyrgios' second-round encounter against the Swiss. It led to the Australian being slapped with a $10,000 fine.

The controversy stemmed from Nick Kyrgios telling Stan Wawrinka that Thanasi Kokkinakis, Kyrgios' compatriot, close friend and tennis colleague, had been intimate with the Swiss' girlfriend at the time, Donna Vekic. Wawrinka himself initially did not seem to hear what Kyrgios said. However, courtside microphones picked it up, which later landed the Australian in trouble.

The match itself finished in Nick Kyrgios' favor after Wawrinka retired with an injury. Recently, the Aussie featured as a guest on The Louis Theroux Podcast and nonchalantly recalled the incident as an instance of "old-fashioned trashtalk".

"Just good old fashioned trashtalk. That's very good and very necessary in sport," Nick Kyrgios said. (16:24)

Host Louis Theroux proceeded to remind the former World No. 13 about the $10,000 fine he received as a result of his words to Stan Wawrinka. Here, Kyrgios remained defiant and went on to explain that his actions stemmed from the Swiss allegedly trying to hit him on the head with a tennis ball at one point during the contest.

"But I won the match. There's a whole story as to why it came out, but I'm not going to babble on about it. We were just going back and forth, back and forth, and it just... he (Wawrinka) wasn't really talking s**t but he was trying to hit me in the head with a tennis ball and I was like, "What's this guy's problem?"," Kyrgios added.

Wawrinka was furious when he later found out about the Australian's comments, and urged authorities to take stringent action. Meanwhile, Kyrgios himself eventually issued an apology.

Earlier this year, the Swiss veteran, a former World No. 3, picked the Australian as the biggest 'trashtalker' while building his perfect tennis player. Kyrgios took notice of it on social media and delivered a brief reaction.

Nick Kyrgios reacted to Stan Wawrinka choosing him for his trashtalking

Nick Kyrgios (Source: Getty)

On Thursday, September 12, the BNP Paribas-backed We Are Tennis shared a video of Stan Wawrinka on X (formerly Twitter). In the video, the three-time Major winner was asked to build his 'perfect player'. The Swiss was given several categories to choose from, with 'trashtalker' being one of them. The former World No. 3 picked Nick Kyrgios, and the Australian later reshared the post and simply wrote:

"Yep"

Kyrgios is set to appear at the World Tennis League, an exhibition team tennis event, which is scheduled to take place from December 19 to 22.