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Nick Kyrgios believes his doubters owe him an apology for criticizing his determination to withdraw from the United Cup on the day earlier than the pre-Australian Open group event started.
Kyrgios was set to line up for Workforce Australia at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Area from Thursday however as an alternative faces a race against the clock to recover from an ankle injury in time for subsequent month’s Australian Open in Melbourne.
The world No.22’s determination to tug out pressured a last-minute reshuffle, with Alex de Minaur promoted to high seed in Australia’s males’s singles matches and Jordan Kubler introduced in.
Kyrgios’ scratching prompted Ticketmaster to supply followers free tickets to 2 of the opposite ties being performed later within the event.
A case of COVID pressured Kyrgios out of the corresponding event final summer season, the ATP Cup, and he additionally sat out the Davis Cup in 2022 for a 3rd consecutive 12 months.
His newest withdrawal prompted a response from his contemporaries, with Stefanos Tsitsipas saying he hoped Kyrgios “enjoys his holidays” and Cameron Norrie admitting he was “dissatisfied” to not be dealing with Kyrgios on Thursday.
Kyrgios and Tsitsipas have a fractious relationship, with clashes together with one at Wimbledon earlier this 12 months by which the Greek star mentioned Kyrgios had an “evil facet”.
On Twitter on Thursday, Kyrgios claimed the media had painted him as a “pure villain” and mentioned he remained a drawcard for the game, pointing to the upcoming documentary Level Break by which options prominently.
“Haha so in any case this, all of the media, journalism saying how unhealthy I’m for the game, disrespecting the sport & only a pure villain, I’m going to be the number one episode on Netflix… to develop our fan base, principally making an attempt to place tennis on the map once more,” Kyrgios wrote.
“And basically placing more cash in everybody’s pockets that is concerned with tennis, you all look actually ridiculous now.
“Your apology ought to be as loud as your disrespect was.”
Australia faces Nice Britain on Thursday evening for its first United Cup tie. The opening match between de Minaur and Norrie begins at 7pm native time.
Afterwards, ladies’s second seed Zoe Hives will face Nice Britain’s Katie Swan.
-AAP
