Nick Kyrgios has bowed out of the Cincinnati Masters with barely a whimper, struggling bodily throughout an emphatic defeat by Taylor Fritz which can put a query mark over the Australian’s US Open hopes.
On a day when Aussie No.1 Alex de Minaur was additionally comfortably tamed by Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime on Wednesday, Kyrgios’s 6-3 6-2 capitulation in simply 50 minutes to the big-serving American appeared regarding with the season’s closing grand slam lower than a fortnight away.
Watch Kyrgios take purpose at the umpire within the video above
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Needing remedy on a difficult left knee, it appeared as if all of the Aussie’s breakthrough matches over the previous month could have begun to catch up with him as he ended up not even capable of rouse himself into any state of excessive dudgeon after some early rows with the chair umpire.
Some of the group in Cincinnati clearly weren’t too impressed both with the quantity of effort they’d seen from the mercurial Canberra determine as there have been a smattering of boos at the top of the one-sided affair.
“He doesn’t look strong enough to do it week in, week out,” former US Open finalist Greg Rusedski famous on Amazon Prime.
“You can hear the boos around the stadium. They didn’t feel like he’d given his best effort out there. But I think you’ve got to give him some slack … he’s given it a go.”
Kyrgios, who’d been on a roll with 16 wins in his earlier 18 matches stretching again to the beginning of his well-known Wimbledon run, seemed to be distracted from the beginning, muttering about it “being only a matter of time before it all unravels”.
He began with a operating argument with umpire Renaud Lichtenstein about his failure to regulate spectators transferring about throughout factors, telling the official: “Why don’t you do your job properly?”
Kyrgios was additionally informed thrice by Lichtenstein to not preserve swearing, though the Aussie bought away with not receiving an official code violation.
In his first assembly with Fritz, he was damaged in a careless sixth sport, as he clearly began to really feel issues with his knee.
Going through a gambler enjoying at double pace and serving up all-or-nothing double faults, Fritz remained calm amid Kyrgios’s chaotic work, even latching on to his underarm serve to ship a winner flashing previous the Australian.
Earlier, de Minaur has been handed a equally brutal lesson, the Australian No.1 being swept apart, additionally by a 6-3 6-2 scoreline.
Simply as Kyrgios had an excessive amount of firepower for him the earlier week in Montreal, the Sydneysider, who so typically finds the perfect within the enterprise a step too far for him, was bullied by the younger Canadian.
It was a dispiriting expertise for world No.20 de Minaur, who, as ever, was not discovered wanting in effort as he tried to launch a struggle again from 4-0 down within the second set.
Auger-Aliassime embellished his emphatic win with 22 winners. The 22-year-old’s energy earned him 4 breaks whereas de Minaur broke simply the as soon as when all was practically misplaced at 4-1 down within the second stanza, a superb effort capped by a rocketing forehand.
However his resistance didn’t final lengthy as Auger-Aliassime rapidly restored his supremacy, breaking for a 5-2 lead earlier than wrapping up proceedings on his personal supply in simply 78 minutes.
