‘An absolute knob’ – Australian Open star slams Nick Kyrgios and compares him to a 10-year-old

Australian Open doubles player Michael Venus has sensationally hit out at Nick Kyrgios and the Melbourne Park crowd following his exit from the tournament.

The Kiwi and German Tim Pütz missed out on a semi-final appearance after suffering defeat in three sets to Aussie pairing Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis on Tuesday at Kia Arena.

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis thrived off the home support from a raucous crowd, taking every opportunity to urge them to shout and cheer more throughout their match.

But Venus has described the crowd like a ‘circus’ while branding Kyrgios an ‘absolute knob’ for his behaviour.

‘They’ll always be his supporters and he’ll always spin it in a way that helps him but at the end of the day, he’s just an absolute knob,’ Venus said.

‘On the maturity side, you see why he’s never fulfilled his potential and probably never will. His maturity level, it’s probably being generous to a 10-year-old, to say it’s at about that level.’

On the crowd, he added: ‘It felt like a circus out there and not really a tennis match.

‘Between serves [they were] geeing the crowd up and getting them to cheer at times like that. I don’t think that’s really on.

‘You know if it’s on the other foot, old mate [Kyrgios] would have flipped his lid. He already did get mad there by himself.’

Venus also took aim at Kyrgios’ moment of madness after one of his unnecessary wayward shots fired into the crowd and hit a young boy which left him in tears.

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To make amends. the 26-year-old ran over to his kit bag and