Grumbling Kyrgios blames stomach bug for Shanghai retirement
Nick Kyrgios has blamed a stomach bug for his midmatch retirement at the Shanghai Masters.
The Australian caused controversy at the tournament for the second straight year by walking off after losing the first set of his opening round match against Steve Johnson.
Kyrgios served a ban from the ATP Tour last year after showing a lack of effort in a second-round match against Mischa Zverev and arguing with the umpire and fans.
Kyrgios looked distracted against Johnson and, after being given a point penalty for an audible obscenity, was heard to say he would quit if he lost the tie-break.
Johnson served it out 7-5 and Kyrgios promptly walked to the net to shake hands, to the bemusement of his opponent and umpire Fergus Murphy. Murphy asked Kyrgios if he needed medical help but, with boos ringing out, the Australian put his rackets in his bag and walked off court.
Kyrgios had grumbled throughout about Murphy and the officiating and, with nothing obvious ailing him and no medical time-outs taken, it appeared frustration had got the better of him. But he blamed illness, saying on Twitter: “Guys I want to apologise to the fans in Shanghai and those that watched around the world on TV today.
“I’ve been battling a stomach bug for the last 24 hours and I tried to be ready but I was really struggling on the court today, which I think was pretty evident from the first point. My shoulder started to hurt in the practice today, which didn’t help either, and once I lost the first set I was just not strong enough to continue because I’ve not eaten much for the past 24 hours.”
0 Nick Kyrgios: Sore shoulder. British No 2 Aljaz Bedene set up a second-round meeting with Alexander Zverev at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
Bedene, ranked 48 in the world, made light work of Italian Paolo Lorenzi, winning 6-1, 6-4 in China.
The 28-year-old was too strong all round for world No 39 Lorenzi, sending down ten aces and winning a healthy 89 per cent of points on his first serve.
That allowed him to put pressure on his opponent’s delivery and he broke twice to take the first set in just 29 minutes and a solitary break in the second saw him seal the win in comfortable fashion.
Third seed and world No 4 Zverev is waiting in the next round after the German was handed a first-round bye.
Kyle Edmund is out of Shanghai after losing to fourth seed Marin Cilic in the second round.
The British No 3 is yet to post a win over a top-ten player and this was another match where he showed a lot of promise but failed to take advantage of half chances. Edmund matched Cilic in the second set and threatened to break the big Croatian’s serve several times but could not get over the line.
Cilic then came out on top of the deciding tie-break to win 6-3, 7-6 (7/5).
Naomi Broady was unable to take advantage of her lucky loser spot as she lost in the opening round of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz.
The British No 3 was beaten in the final round of qualifying but was given a second chance and a favourable draw against Bulgarian qualifier Viktoriya Tomova.
All looked to be going smoothly for Broady as she won the first set without facing a break point but Tomova hit back to take the second on a tie-break.
Broady battled back after losing the first four games of the decider and saved two match points at 5-3 but eventually fell to a 3-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 defeat.
Meanwhile, Elina Svitolina and Venus Williams led the first-round winners at the Hong Kong Open, beating Zarina Diyas 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) and Risa Ozaki 6-2, 6-2, respectively.