Nick Kyrgios ‘devastated’ after quarterfinal defeat to Karen Khachanov as he destroys two rackets on court
After beating Ryan Harrison 2-6, 6-1, 10-8 in the third round, Kyrgios had the perfect opportunity to make up for his quarterfinal defeat to the world No. 1.
But, after taking a two-set lead through two match points, the 25-year-old crumbled under the pressure and lost to the second seed, who is ranked No. 39 in the world.
The defeat was particularly devastating for the Australian after he had won seven of his previous eight matches.
As he tried to compose himself, he said: “It’s definitely a tough one to swallow. In my mind, I think I was still in a little bit of shock because I was still a little bit in shock that I had lost.
“I think mentally, I guess I was still mentally in shock. As a tennis player, playing with a young kid, losing to a kid like that is tough. But now it’s tough as well as it could be, because I know I didn’t play that good.
“I definitely feel good physically, but I’ll have to be mentally prepared to come back, because there’s definitely no way I could come back to the Australian Open.”
Tennis player Karen Khachanov had the chance to close out Kyrgios in the third round, but he could not put together a single chance in the fourth.
“It was very difficult,” said the Bulgarian. “I haven’t lost to Kyrgios for a long time so I hope he doesn’t have a very good tournament.
“I had good matches against players like Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga but I need to change my game and try to beat the top players.”
Earlier this year, Kyrgios was awarded the “Best Comeback Player” award at the Australian Open by the International Tennis Federation.
The 24-year-old Australian had to get through the