Nick Kyrgios, Australia‘s last man standing in the French Open, has crashed out against formidable South African opponent Kevin Anderson in a 5-7 6-4 6-1 6-2 loss.
Despite dominating early – with predictions that his immense serve would be practically unstoppable on the clay court looking like they might be right – he began to falter, bedevilled by hip and shoulder complaints which made it difficult for him to keep up his run of straight aces.
Kyrgios serving #RG17 pic.twitter.com/UPThMFT2TM
— Marc Tb (@HittingZones) June 1, 2017
“Kyrgios conceded that his chances of winning were all but gone from back in April when his grandfather died. “After my grandpa passing, I just lost a lot of motivation to do anything, really,” he said. “When I was back home, it was tough. I mean, I can’t talk about it. I can’t.”
Despite Kyrgios’ frankly superhuman four straight aces, it’ll most likely be his frustrated attack on a changeover chair with his racket that people will remember.
Enjoying the assorted reactions around Kyrgios strop pic.twitter.com/afYVZSswxP
— James Dart (@James_Dart) June 1, 2017
In fact, he lost it a few times on court when he was unable to follow through on the promise of his serve.
Kyrgios being Kyrgios on court today… #FrenchOpen pic.twitter.com/3LerJs57mG
— easyodds.com (@easy_odds) June 1, 2017
“Obviously, it’s disappointing just to lose, but, to be fair, my preparation for the claycourt season hasn’t been great. I feel like I’ve way underdone,” he told reporters.
Samantha Stosur is now Australia’s great hope at this point leading into the third round.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: Getty Images.
