Australian No.1 Nick Kyrgios has clarified his remarks after it was reported earlier this week that he had hired a doubles specialist as his coach for the Asian Swing.
Earlier this week newspaper The Courier Mail had quoted the 23-year-old as saying that he has formed a partnership with Jamie Cerretani. A world No.65 doubles player who he paired up with in the doubles at this week’s Japan Open. The duo lost in the second round of qualifying.
“James is my coach now — you can quote me on that one,’’ Kyrgios told The Courier Mail on Wednesday.
“We have been working for a while now, especially the last couple of weeks.
“We’ve been talking on the phone a lot (in recent weeks), but starting in Tokyo it’s the first week we have been working together officially. It’s going well.”
The apparent appointment of Cerretani caught some off guard, but it had now been confirmed that it was just a hoax by Kyrgios. A day after the story was first reported, the world No.27 said that he was just messing around. Taking a swipe at the media over their coverage of the story.
“Prime example of the media, give them a little ridiculous information and they completely go with it,” Kyrgios wrote.
Nick Kyrgios on Wednesday: "James is my coach now – you can quote me on that one."
Nick Kyrgios on Thursday… pic.twitter.com/KWxxZl6jex
— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) October 4, 2018
Cerretani, who has won four doubles titles on the ATP World Tour, also saw the funny side of the situation. Joking that he wouldn’t rule out working with Kyrgios in the future with the hashtag ‘neversaynever.’
“Just lettin’ cats know, I’m not coaching Nick Kyrgios – yet, haha.” He wrote.
This week Kyrgios lost in the second round of the Japan Open in two tiebreakers to Richard Gasquet. The loss means that he is set to fall to roughly 37th in the world rankings. Ensuring that he will lose his Australian No.1 position to Alex de Minaur after two-and-a-half years.
Kyrgios will return to action at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, which will get underway on Monday. It will be his fourth main draw appearance at the tournament and he is yet to progress beyond the second round.
