Pain puts Kyrgios in pub early
Asked how he would be spending the next few days after his injury withdrawal from the Aegon Championships, Nick kyrgios gave a threeword answer.
‘dog and Fox,’ replied the Australian, raising a smile while referring to the landmark pub in Wimbledon Village, not far from where he is billeted.
Whether being mischievous or not, he is unlikely to bump into kyle edmund there, even though the British No 2 lives down the road and may also have time on his hands.
Hanging out in the local boozer is not the style of the diligent edmund, who followed kyrgios out of the Queen’s Club singles event in different circumstances.
He was beaten 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 by 18-year-old Canadian prospect denis shapovalov, who came through qualifying.
Their encounter ended somewhat less spectacularly than last time they met, which was in February’s davis Cup tie in Ottawa. There, the teenager was defaulted after smashing a ball into the face of the umpire, albeit unintentionally.
This time it ended more with a whimper than a bang, edmund unable to recover from sending down two double faults at 4-5 in the deciding set.
Unusually for a British-reared player, edmund is happier on the clay than the grass. Yet he would still have expected to get through this, especially as he was winning comfortably when the normally well-mannered shapovalov had his meltdown four months ago.
earlier in the day, kyrgios had pulled out after losing his first-set tie break 7-3 to American donald Young, having slipped on the fresh grass at 4-4 and aggravated the hip injury which required an injection two weeks ago.
The Australian did not seem unduly alarmed, saying: ‘There are worse things in the world than a guy slipping playing tennis. I’m sure I’ll live.’
He still expects to play at Wimbledon, where he would be considered an outside contender. saying he has no plans to undergo a scan, he added: ‘I’d play Wimbledon if I was injured pretty bad anyway.
‘I will be playing for sure. I have been playing with a sore hip for a long time. I felt it was painful and I started feeling it when I was walking and landing on my serve. It’s what I was feeling in Paris.’
He did not attempt to blame the surface on the newly expanded centre court, which had its usual first-day lushness, adding: ‘It was obviously new, pretty slick. I expected it.’
At least edmund will not require a wildcard for Wimbledon, the first batch of which will be decided upon today and which offer a minimum £35,000 to the recipients.
There are not many options among GB men and two names likely to be discussed today are James Ward, coming back from a long-term injury, and Marcus Willis, returning from a long-term human interest story. Ward, whose stalwart service to Britain’s davis Cup team is in his favour, plays French qualifier Julien Benneteau at lunchtime — early enough for the result to be taken into consideration at this afternoon’s Wimbledon meeting.