Tennis star Nick Kyrgios has raised a tennis storm with his jibe at Swiss Grand Slam champion Stanislas Wawrinka. Kyrgios muttered to Wawrinka on-court on Wednesday that "(Thanasi) Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend. Sorry to tell you that mate," midway through the pair’s second-round Rogers Cup match in Montreal. Though he has been fined, there is still plenty to be said on the matter and this might really be a catalyst of how we look at the sledging issue on the whole.

Sledging has always been part of sport, but it is time players know where to draw the line. Dragging women and family into it is despicable, the lowest of the low, so to speak. It suggests that even the best players in the world, those superstars that command so much adulation and fan following, especially from impressionable youngsters, have a caveman-like mentality. To insult a player’s mother, sister, wife, girlfriend or daughter is to get an immediate reaction from the player — it is the ultimate form of ‘needling’.