Nick Kyrgios is copping a bit of heat from the press today after he crashed out against German qualifier Mischa Zverev at the Shanghai Masters – in which he argued with spectators, appeared not to try and received a code violation for swearing at a heckler – but he’s unapologetic in that classic Kyrgios way, telling fans he doesn’t actually owe them anything.
Not at all. I feel like if they knew what they were talking about they’d be on the tennis court and being successful, as well. No, I can’t really understand it at all. They don’t know what I’m going through, so, no, I don’t understand it. Do you? […] What does that even mean? I’m good at hitting a tennis ball over the net. Like, big deal. I don’t owe them anything. It’s like it’s my choice.
He did apologise to fans a couple of hours later, via Twitter:
Not good enough today on many levels, I’m better than that. I can go on about excuses but there are none. Sorry #StillAWorkInProgress ????????
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 12, 2016
Bizarre? What’s the definition of bizarre? I don’t know. But that was definitely a match that I did not expect was gonna go that way, because I know he’s a great player, played really well last week, but it happened to be a little easier than I expected. […] Would Federer behave like that? Probably not, but [Kyrgios] is a creative mind, so that’s why it’s up to him how to behave, and he’s top 15, 16 in the world, so he’s doing something right on the court, and especially coming back from a week in Tokyo where he played phenomenal tennis.