A ballboy was nearly hit by Nick Kyrgios’ flying racquet after the Australian hurled it at the ground following his quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal at Indian Wells.
A ballboy was nearly hit by Nick Kyrgios’ flying racquet after the Australian hurled it at the ground following his quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal at Indian Wells. Kyrgios lost 7-6 (7/0), 4-7, 6-4 to Nadal and after shaking hands with the Spaniard proceeded to smash his racquet on the ground but it rebounded and flew towards a ballboy, who dodged it just in the nick of time. The video of the incident quickly went viral on social media. The Australian later shared a screenshot of his text messages where he apologised to the ballboy and promised to give him a racquet.
Kyrgios, however, lashed out when he was questioned about the incident in the post-match press conference.
He insisted the ugly incident was barely worthy of comment, and not on the scale, for example, of ATP colleague Alexander Zverev’s meltdown in Mexico, that saw the German fined $40,000 for bashing an umpire’s chair with his racquet.
“Did I throw my racquet anywhere near him (the ballboy) originally,” Kyrgios said. “It landed a meter from my foot and skidded and nearly hit him.
“I’m human. Things happen like that. It was an accident. It most definitely wasn’t like Zverev. It was a complete accident. I didn’t hit him, thankfully. It wasn’t my intention.
“So, thankfully, he’s OK.”
Nadal and Kyrgios had already shaken hands, and the Spaniard didn’t see him throw the racquet after the match.
“I think Nick had a great attitude during the whole match in terms of fighting spirit, and of course he has his personality, his character,” Nadal said. “Sometimes he does things that I don’t like, but I respect because of different character, different kind of points of view, and different kind of education.”
(With AFP inputs)
Source : Ndtv Sports