Nick Kyrgios booed off court in 'shameful' retirement controversy
Nick Kyrgios has been mercilessly booed by fans after retiring hurt at the Mexican Open in Acapulco.
Coming into the tournament already carrying a wrist injury, Kyrgios pulled the pin against France's Ugo Humbert after dropping the first set 6-3.
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The Mexican crowd were clearly unhappy about Kyrgios’ showing, booing the Aussie star as he walked off court.
“I don’t give a f***, I really don’t give a f***,” Kyrgios said in his post-match press conference.
“I’m not healthy but I still came and tried to play.”
In his first match since losing to Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the Australian Open, Kyrgios took a medical timeout at 1-4.
But things didn’t get much better after he called it quits after dropping the set.
Tennis writer Jose Morgado led the condemnation of the crowd’s behaviour.
Nick Kyrgios retires down 6-3 to Ugo Humbert.
Left wrist pain.
Will lose 500 points and drop to #38 at best.
Gets booed leaving the court, which is totally unnecessary from the crowd tbh— José Morgado (@josemorgado) February 26, 2020
How do you boo a defending champion because he’s injured? Shameful by the crowd in Acapulco! Get well soon Nick Kyrgios
— YURP ORGANISM (@MCSlips) February 26, 2020
Kyrgios has retired from his match against Ugo Humbert with a wrist injury.
He gave it a crack, but lost the first set in half an hour.
Clearly injured and the crowd is booing. Gross.#AMT2020— Brendan Bradford (@1bbradfo) February 26, 2020
Humbert seemed almost embarrassed to accept the crowd's applause after they roundly booed Kyrgios for retiring with a wrist injury. This same wrist kept him from playing Delray last week.
— HGOT (@FBITennis) February 26, 2020
Kyrgios booed off court by the whole crowd in Acapulco
— Chris Goldsmith (@TheTennisTalker) February 26, 2020
Kyrgios not happy with claycourt schedule
Kyrgios had earlier taken to social media to criticise the timing of some clay court tournaments during the ATP Tour season.
Kyrgios had withdrawn from his past two scheduled events in New York and Delray Beach due to the injury.
The Aussie tennis star says having events played on the red dirt during the hard court season is damaging to the future of tennis.
Kyrgios also took issue with Gianluca Mager's jump in the world rankings from 128th to 77th after the Italian reached the final of the Rio Open on Sunday.
“If you think having all these clay court tournaments whilst we are in the midst of the hard court season is good for the sport and the future of tennis continue to argue,” he responded to a post by a Twitter user on Monday.
Mager - who had to qualify to get into the main draw of the ATP 500 event in Rio and beat top seed Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals-finals - is now ranked above the likes of Australian young gun Alexei Popyrin, Frances Tiafoe and Vasek Pospisil.
"How many wins on hard court and grass court has he had?" Kyrgios asked about Mager.
Kyrgios insisted he was not taking aim at fellow players but rather the going after the tournaments rather than individuals.
"I'm not going at anyone," Kyrgios replied to a Twitter user's subsequent defence of Mager.
"I'm going at these tournaments."
The 24-year-old also retweeted a post that described the Rio Open and the Chile Open as 'a f***ing joke', adding his own caption which read 'Factsssss'.
with AAP
