Nick Kyrgios: 'I don't care about the crowd, I tried my best on the court'

With 1670 points on his tally, Nick Kyrgios cracked the top-25 for the first time since August 2018 this February, playing on a stable level at the ATP Cup and the Australian Open and looking much better on the court in comparison to 2019. The majority of those points (1000) came at two ATP 500 events last year, as Nick conquered Acapulco and Washington, both after facing a match point, entering this week's draw in Acapulco far from his 100% but with a desire to at least try. The Aussie reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, giving his 120% against Rafael Nadal who prevailed in four tight sets, skipping New York and Delray Beach and trying to make a return in Acapulco where he defeated Nadal after fending off match points 12 months ago. That will not be the case this week, though, with Kyrgios retiring against Ugo Humbert while trailing 6-3, spending 31 minutes on the court and deciding to quit after more troubles with that left wrist.

Nick served at 88% but that wasn't enough to keep him safe, suffering one break and barely winning any point on the return to send the young Frenchman in front. After this setback, Kyrgios will experience a significant drop in the rankings, losing around 15 positions and just staying inside the top-40. Humbert held with an ace in the opening game and created a couple of break chances in game two that Kyrgios saved with winners, leveling the score at 1-1 but not looking good on the court at all. Ugo held at 15 in game three with another ace and grabbed a break a few minutes later following a double fault from Nick who received a medical timeout after falling 4-1 behind, with a tape on his left wrist that could only lead to one thing. The Aussie held at 15 in game six with an ace and with a service winner at 3-5, staying within one break deficit before Humbert held at love for a 6-3, with Kyrgios retiring a minute later to receive booes from the crowd. 

"I'm not healthy. I tried to come here and play," Kyrgios said. "I've been doing media here and helping out. I tried to play and give the fans a little bit of tennis. "I honestly don't give a sh.. about the crowd. I tried to play, I supported with the media, I wanted to give people some tennis but it was not possible. My wrist is just not ready to play; I could feel it on every backhand. It's unfortunate after the memories I had last year; it's tough for me."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3a7kSxK