Kyrgios turns air blue as he KOs Kyle
Nick kyrgios dropped an array of bombs at Queen’ s club, some scorching off the end of his racket and others of the F-variety coming from his mouth. He produced a brilliant serving performance to knock kyle Edmund out of the Fever-Tree championships yesterday, but it was hard to ignore the stream of bad language that accompanied it in the tense closing moments of the match. A barrage of 32 aces proved too much for the 23-year- old yorkshireman to resist and the lone British survivor went out in the second round 7-6, 6-7, 6-3.
While umpire Fergus Murphy appeared not to hear the invective kyrgios directed towards his support box, the BBc microphones certainly did, and the broadcaster was forced to apologise more than once to viewers who should otherwise have been entranced by his unusual skills. on the defensive later when asked about his bad language the Australian replied, ‘ Fine. i don’t care,’ although you suspect he probably did at some level.
kyrgios had actually apologised to a section of the crowd for his verbals earlier in the match as he dispatched his second British star in two matches.
He had been on best behaviour when beating Andy Murray in the opening round but was far more focused on the job yesterday, to the cost of Edmund.
This was the sort of performance which showed why kyrgios now has a full house of wins against the top players (Murray completed the set) and why nobody likes playing him. He won all but nine of the 72 points when his first serve went in and often hit second serves at over 130mph. He kept his show-boat shots to a minimum, although there was one near-miraculous lob winner from between his legs.
Asked if he could be a threat at Wimbledon he replied simply: ‘A big one.’
But Edmund should not be disheartened because he showcased to a home audience how much he has improved over the last six months. He mislaid his first serve in the fourth game of the decider to get broken but created a break point chance at the death. kyrgios is of the opinion that few players can really play on grass and believes that Edmund is among them. ‘He played really well today. i was really surprised. He handled the low balls well, volleyed well, returned well. He sliced well,’ said the Australian.
‘He did pretty much everything, his intangibles were good. yeah, i would definitely put him in that category.’ That Edmund remains among a small number of home players who can compete at the very highest level has been borne out again this week by results.
Amid all the debates about Wimbledon wildcards the reality is that he is one of only two British players to have won tour matches in singles this week. The other is Harriet Dart, who is through to the quarter finals of the lower-tier tournament taking place at ilkley.