Nick Kyrgios believes his doubters owe him an apology for criticising his resolution to withdraw from the United Cup on the day earlier than the pre-Australian Open crew event started.
Kyrgios was set to line up for Team Australia at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena from Thursday however as an alternative faces a race in opposition to the clock to get better from an ankle damage in time for subsequent month’s Australian Open in Melbourne.
The world No.22’s resolution to tug out compelled a last-minute reshuffle, with Alex de Minaur promoted to high seed in Australia’s mens singles matches and Jordan Kubler introduced in.
Kyrgios’ scratching prompted Ticketmaster to supply followers free tickets to 2 of the opposite ties being performed later within the event.
A case of COVID-19 compelled Kyrgios out of the corresponding event final summer time, the ATP Cup, and he additionally sat out the Davis Cup in 2022 for a 3rd consecutive 12 months.
His newest withdrawal prompted response from his contemporaries, with Stefanos Tsitsipas saying he hoped Kyrgios “enjoys his holidays” and Cameron Norrie admitting was he “disappointed” to not be going through Kyrgios on Thursday.
Kyrgios claimed the media had painted him as a “pure villain” and mentioned he remained a drawcard for the game, pointing to the forthcoming documentary Point Break through which he’s prominently featured.
“Haha so after all this, all the media, journalism saying how bad I am for the sport, disrespecting the game & just a pure villain, I am going to be the number 1 episode on Netflix… to grow our fan base, basically trying to put tennis on the map again,” Kyrgios wrote on Twitter.
“And essentially putting more money in everyone’s pockets that’s involved with tennis, you all look really ridiculous now.
“Your apology must be as loud as your disrespect was.”
Australia faces Great Britain on Thursday evening for their first tie, with the opening match between de Minaur and Norrie set to begin from 7pm local time.
Afterwards, girls’s second seed Zoe Hives will face Great Britain’s Katie Swan.
