Canadian 16th seed Milos Raonic has sent an injury-troubled Nick Kyrgios crashing out of the Australian Open in the first round on Melbourne Arena.
Kyrgios looked to be heading towards a retirement, requiring treatment on his right knee after each set, telling the trainer he felt like “absolute dogs**t”.
The 23-year-old soldiered on before losing 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in an hour and 56 minutes; his first opening round loss at his home grand slam.
Once again a visibly irritated Kyrgios spent much of the match preoccupied with his ailing body.
After being edged out in a make-or-break decider to the second set, he told his trainer he had “just given up basically”.
“I’ve taken four tablets and it’s gotten worse. It’s f**king terrible. It’s f**ked. It feels like dogs**t mate. Absolute dogs**t,” he said.
Kyrgios took to the court without strapping and the pain seemed to first present itself late in the first set.
“I’m trying my nuts off, and when I try my nuts off, f**k my knee starts hurting … I can’t even rock back on my serve, man.”
With embattled Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt and legend Tony Roche in the stands, Kyrgios did his best to combat his deteriorating condition and the huge-serve of the former world No.3
The 2016 Wimbledon finalist fired down 30 aces, including an astonishing second set where he put together a run of 29 successive points won on serve.
That run came to an end in the tiebreak, when Kyrgios might have stolen the momentum with an astonishing around-the-net passing attempt that sailed just 14mm wide.
A minute later, Raonic slammed down his fastest serve of the match on set point, a 224kph rocket into Kyrgios’ body, that gave him complete control.
Kyrgios denied that his knee issue had anything to do with the result, saying he’d “never seen serving like that in my life”
“I was just watching it literally going side to side … he was in such a good rhythm on serve, I couldn’t do anything. He was way too good tonight,” he said.
“The way I played, I actually didn’t play that bad. I actually thought I played okay. I competed well. I probably would have beaten 75 per cent of the draw. But Milos played scary.”
Raonic’s prize is a second-round clash with three-time slam winner and 2014 Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka.
