What happened to Kyrgios?

By
Mark Hall
-

Nick Kyrgios added another quirky chapter to his tormented career. The Australian was playing the first round against Steve Johnson in Shanghai, but his body language looked awful from the very beginning. Eventually, the Australian kept on playing till the end of the first set. After losing the tiebreak, he abruptly decided to retire leaving the fans, Johnson and the umpire completely baffled.

 

What happened

Nick was nervous for the entire set, and he was “over-upset” for a wrong call; the Australian got a first warning for throwing the ball out of the stadium in frustration and then he had a crucial penalty-point during the tiebreak for “audible obscenity.” During the breaker, Nick was heard saying that he would retire if he loses the first set and he remained true to his words.

Kyrgios left the court and once again he was heavily booed by the Chinese fans that didn’t forget Kyrgios’ horrible behavior last year when the Australian refused to compete against Mischa Zverevin the second round.

The explanations

After withdrawing from the match, Nick released the following statement

“Guys, I want to apologize to the fans in Shanghai and those that watched around the world on TV today.

I’ve been battling a stomach bug for the past 24 hours, and I tried to be ready, but I was really struggling on the court today which I think was pretty evident from the first point.

My shoulder started to hurt in the practice today which didn’t help either, and once I lost the first set, I was just not strong enough to continue because I’ve not eaten much the past 24 hours.

I’m hoping to be okay for the doubles and will make a decision tomorrow morning, hopefully off of a good night’s sleep which I didn’t get last night! I’m gutted, to be honest, as I was keen to keep the good momentum that I built in Beijing going and finish the year strong. I’ll do what I can to make sure I do.”


SOME MORE CONTROVERSY?     
                                 
Embed from Getty Images