Nick loses it in land of the lost white towel
NICK Kyrgios was left “seething” over the fact he didn’t have a plain white towel as he crashed back to earth with a first-round loss at the Montreal Masters yesterday.
Two days after he claimed the title at Washington, Kyrgios was forced to apologise for the colourful language picked up by the on-court microphones.
After telling the chair umpire to radio for a towel, Kyrgios went back on to the court down 2-3 and unleashed a verbal tirade.
“I’m f---ing frustrated man, a f---ing white towel … I asked him, how hard is it. It’s a white towel, five games for a white towel,” Kyrgios shouted.
Kyrgios asked umpire to arrange for a white towel to be sent to his seat only for the official to tell him he couldn’t.
“I’m not allowed to leave the chair,” the umpire said.
“But you have a radio, I asked you at the start of the match,” Kyrgios said. “You’re telling me you can’t radio in for one white towel?”
He continued to voice his displeasure over not having the towel deep into the first set and was hit with a code violation.
“We love to watch the train crash … certainly not the way you want your sport represented,” one ESPN commentator said of Kyrgios’s rant.
His opponent Kyle Edmund on the other hand was more than happy using the tournament towels and took full advantage to claim the opening set 6-3.
Kyrgios finally got his hands on a plain white towel just before the set came to an end but he failed to recover, going down 6-3, 6-4.
Meanwhile John Millman advanced to the second round while Alex de Minaur and Jordan Thompson were beaten in their opening matches.
Millman battled past Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez 6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 in an enthralling match at the ATP Masters 1000 event.
The Australian will face Marin Cilic next after the Croatian 14th seed beat Bradley Klahn 6-3, 7-6 (9-7).
De Minaur paid the price for his inability to capitalise on break-point opportunities in a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) loss to Dan Evans. Thompson was defeated by American John Isner 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6).