Nick Kyrgios ‘devastated’ after quarterfinal defeat to Karen Khachanov as he destroys two rackets on court
The Australian, who also upset Ernests Gulbis at a Grand Slam last month, took only 49 minutes to reach his quarterfinal against Khachanov, the former world number three on the ATP tour, in Moscow yesterday.
“It’s a devastating loss for me, to lose to a competitor like Karen Khachanov and one of the all-time greats, I’m extremely disappointed, and it’s a good learning process,” he said after the match.
Kyrgios had a chance to go even deeper but missed the last six games in a row and had to exit in five sets.
“It’s obviously a very tough loss, especially with the first set, that’s the one I looked at most of the time, obviously it was a tough situation with the first set and it’s tough when you have to make your way and not have any break opportunities, but obviously I was really happy with the second set, I’m very happy with how I played in the second set,” said the 24-year-old.
“It’s really nice to play a match like this, I was really happy with how I played in the second set, I felt like I played pretty well for the most part, the most important thing was to just focus on my tennis, so I’m so happy with that.
“It’s definitely a very, very tough situation for me, I’m just so disappointed because now I have to work on my game the next few days, make sure I stay in shape, improve on my game and stay away from mistakes.”
Kyrgios was out of the tournament on Monday to rest up and get ready to play in the French Open.
Asked how he felt, Kyrgios replied: “Pretty good. To be honest, I wasn’t really in a good match from the beginning, I felt like I was struggling a little bit in the beginning and I thought I let my serve get away. The way I played on the second day, after I made a couple of
