Temperamental Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios reignited a feud with swimming legend Dawn Fraser 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.”
Racist tho https://t.co/0DJRoNB5PH
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) June 11, 2018
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.