Nick Kyrgios' family has defended the under-fire tennis star, saying his sledge at Swiss grand slam champion Stanislas Wawrinka needed to be taken into context.
Kyrgios' mother Nill wrote on twitter: "Sledge for a sledge," and told Fairfax Media there was already bad blood between the two.
"It's not a nice thing to say, it's not, but you can't always cop it on the chin from other people without retaliating," she said.
"If you give people lip then you've got to receive some back."
Nill has since deleted her twitter account due to a large backlash against her comments.
Christos Kyrgios said on radio his younger brother's comments needed to be taken into context with previous incidents between the two players.
"Stan openly said after their match at Queen's that Nick was faking injury and that he wasn't even sick," he told the Triple M Grill Team.
"If you're going to come and openly, it's not even sledging, that's openly slandering someone after a match, then you can expect a bit of sledging back."
Christos was suddenly cut-off from the Triple M Grill Team show with the radio station saying an inappropriate comment had been made.
On Wednesday, during a second-round Rogers Cup match in Montreal, Nick Kyrgios linked the reigning French Open champion with teenage Australian player, Thanasi Kokkinakis.
"Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend. Sorry to tell you that mate," said Kyrgios midway through the second set.
Wawrinka divorced his wife Ilham earlier this year and has since been romantically linked with Croatian teenager Donna Vekic.
