Nick Kyrgios had admitted that his energy levels are low after a brutal schedule this season.
Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis opened their Nitto ATP Finals campaign with a 6-7 6-4 10-5 defeat to top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski.
After the match the Australian pairing admitted that the year-end number one pairing were too good and explained how quick the conditions were in Italy, “I mean, they were just unbelievable players,” Kyrgios told the press conference.
“They completely outplayed us. On a different level of tennis, I thought. We’re just nowhere near that level.
“Quick. Every time the ball hit the line, it was skidding through, coming quick. Yeah, I mean, the court was low-bouncing.
“I think we had every opportunity to win this match today. Me and Thanasi are probably the outliers of every other doubles players here. We like to prioritize singles and we know we’re the better tennis players at the end of the day.
“We don’t need to have weeks of, preparation honestly, for doubles. Honestly, my preparation wasn’t ideal. But I still fell all right today. We could have won today.”
It has been a long season for Kyrgios in particular who has been on the go for most of the year, including a run to the Wimbledon final in singles.
However the lack of time at home has been tough for the Australian Open champions who are now relishing travelling back home for some rest ahead of next season, “I mean, well, yeah, the schedule is pretty brutal for Australians,” Kyrgios explained.
“We have to fly 56 hours to every tournament. We get a couple months at home per year where everyone else gets six months. My energy levels are pretty down. I wouldn’t mind to see how we go here, but looking forward to going home.
“Yeah, the experience has been cool. I still feel like the grind of tennis for Australians is widely underappreciated. Like, we’ve been on the road pretty much all year. The amount of time away from home, trying to play singles and doubles at events, all the physio, late nights, this type of stuff, massively underappreciated.”
Kyrgios and Kokkinakis will look to bounce back in their second match when they face the losers of the match between Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic against Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek.
