‘He is so lucky!’ Nick Kyrgios loses his cool; punches board and smashes racket at Indian Wells against Rafael Nadal
Nick Kyrgios
A lot was expected from the much-awaited Rafael Nadal-Nick Kyrgios clash and the players sure did deliver. Both Rafa and Nick played some very high-quality tennis in the first set with Nick having the first laugh. He was quick to break Rafa in the first set and consolidated his serve well. So much so that a couple of his service games lasted less than 2 mins. With 5-4 up, the Australian was serving for the set but against the run of play, hot broken.
Kyrgios was visibly upset with himself and was taken aback by Nadal’s sudden attack. He lost his concentration and after losing the next game, he smashed his racket and even punched the board in frustration. As a result, he was given a code violation for racket abuse.
In the following game too, Kyrgios was very frustrated with the turn of events but managed to hold serve to force a tie-breaker. But Nadal seemed to have gotten into Kyrgios’ head as he completely lost it and was yelling in between points. His focus was gone as Nadal had as many as 6 set points in the Australian’s serve. The constant screaming resulted in yet another violation and hence a deserving point penalty. Nadal, as a result, won the tie-breaker 7-0.
‘He is so lucky’: Nick Kyrgios on Nadal
During the first set, Kyrgios also called Rafa ‘lucky’ on multiple occasions and gave a wry smile to his box saying, “He is so lucky.” It was kind of ironic as Nadal didn’t have any lucky net cords but Kyrgios thought otherwise.
What was even more surprising for everyone was that Kyrgios looked like the better player for the majority of the set but a little lapse in concentration made him lose the set.
Kyrgios also complained about fans constantly speaking and yelling in between serves. Umpire Carlos Bernardes also acknowledged the matter and set a fan straight during one of Nadal’s service game in the second set.
Lakshya Chopra
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