Temperamental Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios reignited a feud with swimming legend Dawn Fraser on Tuesday, calling her “racist” after she was honoured by the Queen.
Fraser, winner of eight Olympic medals including four golds from 1956-64, was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday honours list in recognition of her services to sport.
The 80-year-old told Australia’s Channel Seven : “I’m so very grateful that I’m Australian and I’ve been given this honour... it’s just absolutely fantastic.” The broadcaster posted the clip on Twitter, and it was retweeted by Kyrgios with the message: “Racist tho“.
It follows a row between the pair in 2015 after Kyrgios was accused of giving up, or “tanking”, during a match at Wimbledon, and responded to media questions about the incident with a string of sarcastic replies.
At the time Fraser blasted his behaviour in a national television interview as “absolutely disgusting” and told him to “go back to where his parents came from“.
Australian-born Kyrgios, whose father hails from Greece and his mother from Malaysia, responded by calling Fraser a “blatant racist“.
Fraser later defended her controversial remarks, claiming her message was more about the poor example being set by Kyrgios for children.
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