Australian Open fans urged to show respect as Nick Kyrgios makes locker room ‘fight’ claim

The world No 1 doubles player Mate Pavic has called on crowds at the Australian Open to be more respectful after he and partner Nikola Mektic were knocked out in the second round by home duo Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis.

The Australians prevailed in straight sets against the top-ranked duo on Friday evening amid a raucous and at times heated atmosphere at Melbourne Park. Pavic's comments come after Daniil Medvedev criticised sections of the Australian Open crowd following his singles win over Kyrgios on Thursday.

"They are pretty loud," Pavic said of the home fans. "Obviously they cheer for Aussies. It wouldn't hurt them to show some respect to all opponents, to other players. We saw yesterday also with Medvedev how it was. That's how they are here. We're used to that. But like I said, it wouldn't hurt them to show some respect."

Kyrgios later claimed the fiery nature of the clash spilled over into the players' gym, with the coach and trainer of the Croatian duo allegedly threatening to fight him. "Just letting you know after yesterday's chop fest in doubles my opponents coach and trainer proceeded to threaten to fight in the players gym," Kyrgios said on Twitter. "Tennis is a soft soft sport @TKokkinakis all because I moved and hit them with a tennis ball."

Pavic and Mektic lost the first set 10-8 in a tie-break before the Australians took the second set 6-3 to advance to the third round, to the delight of the boisterous crowd in the Kia Arena.

"It all went very fast, very loud," said Mektic. "We barely survived yesterday just to fight another day. It looks like, just the guys played really well. They're a nasty team to beat here and that's it. We just fell short."

After easing into the fourth round on Saturday, Medvedev looked to build bridges with the home crowd after hitting out at "low IQ" fans shouting during his previous win over Kyrgios.

"I was hoping you were going to be a bit easier on me guys," the No 2 seed said after his win over Botic van de Zandschulp. "I'll put it this way, it's a little easier to play a guy from the Netherlands than a guy from Australia in Melbourne.

"I think every good relationship has it's ups and down but it's good," the Russian told the Margaret Court Arena crowd. "It's entertaining, it's real. It's not like 'hi guys, okay, whatever, I'll see you next time', there is some relationship going on. Hopefully I can come many more years here. As I say, I don't think it'll only be good ones but I hope it'll be more good times than bad ones, otherwise it won't work."