Australian rising star Nick Kyrgios has crashed out of the French Open after squandering a dominant lead against Kevin Anderson.
18th seeded Kyrgios lead the match 7-5, 4-2, before dropping 16 out of the next 19 games to exit the tournament. The implosion of the Australian resulted in a deterioration of his behaviour with a series of racquet-smashing offences. Then during the fourth set, Kyrgios asked a spectator to ‘get him a beer’ after he dropped the fourth set.
“When I was serving at 4-3 (in the second set), I had switched off tactically and that obviously gave him confidence to just keep swinging and then it kind of went from there, a snowball effect, really.” Said Kyrgios.
It’s not good being a racquet when you are Nick #Kyrgios‘ one #RG17 (GIF @doublefault28) pic.twitter.com/jJ79Y7hTDU
— We Are Tennis (@WeAreTennis) 1 June 2017
Kyrgios’ collapse played into the hands of former top-10 player Anderson, who has reached the last-32 in Roland Garros for the fifth time in his career. Drawing upon his experience, the South African exposed his opponent’s vulnerabilities to his advantage.
“He was struggling with his own battles, I didn’t give him a way to get back in the match. So it’s something that I knew I needed to do, and I thought I was able to execute that very well today.” Anderson explained.
Personal struggles
Reflecting on his clay campaign, Kyrgios admitted that he has been struggling with his motivation following the death of his grandfather. The 22-year-old withdrew from the Estoril Open in May following the bereavement. The passing still troubles him now after he refused to discuss the topic during his press conference.
“After my grandpa passing, I just lost a lot of motivation to do anything, really.” Admitted Kyrgios.
Physical issues have also hampered him within recent week’s. At the Madrid Open he experienced problems with his hip, which forced him to withdraw from the Rome Open. Prior to Roland Garros, Kyrgios had only played four matches on the clay this season, winning two of those. It is a sharp contrast to earlier in the season when he produced back-to-back wins over Novak Djokovic followed by reaching the semifinals in Miami.
“My preparation for the clay court season hasn’t been great. I feel like I’ve way underdone coming into the French.” He said.
“I haven’t really structured any good training in the last five weeks. So I don’t think I was match-ready to play best of five sets, but he played well today. “
Speaking about his new mentor, Sebastian Grosjean, Kyrgios admitted that his team is aware of his current form. Unlike other coaching partnerships, the two communicate on a more casual basis. Grosjean is more of a mentor when needed as supposed to a full-time coach.
“He knows that things have been difficult for me. But he knows firsthand that I haven’t put in enough work to have gone deep here.” Kyrgios said about the Frenchman. “The whole team knows it.”
Kyrgios’ French Open campaign is not over yet. He is still participating in the men’s doubles draw alongside compatriot Jordan Thompson.
