Kyrgios broke Nadal in his second service game of the match, and cruised through the remainder of the first set.
But he couldn’t hold his nerve and clinch the first. Leading 5-4 and serving for the first set, Kyrgios was broken by the star Spaniard.
An implosion followed soon after. He cracked a racquet in half, was given a visible obscenity warning and, trailing 0-6 in the tiebreak, gifted the first set to Nadal with another obscenity when responding to a fan in the stands.
After not dropping a point in the breaker, the momentum was all Nadal’s. But Kyrgios regained his composure and played the level of tennis which saw him lead the Spaniard for the majority of the first set.
The pace of the match slowed, as Kyrgios worked his way into several Nadal service games. Eventually, he worked his way into one enough to break, as Nadal was serving to stay in the set trailing 5-6.
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It was easily Nadal’s worst service game of the set, but Kyrgios had to produce some of his athletic best to take the first of two set points.
The Spaniard couldn’t find any rhythm on serve when the deciding set began, either.
He saved a pair of break points in his first service game, much to Kyrgios’ frustration.
The Stiller brush, ensuing break and clash with umpire Carlos Bernandes followed soon after, as did Nadal’s match points.
The Spaniard clinched the first chance he had to seal the result with an overhead smash.
Kyrgios followed suit after shaking hands by smashing his second racquet of the match into the Californian hardcourt.
While viewers at home wouldn’t have seen it, vision soon spread on social media of how close Kyrgios’ smashed racquet after match point came to a ball boy.
The Australian didn’t take kindly to questions about the incident.
“What would you like me to say about it?” he responded.
“Was that my intention? No. Did I throw the racquet anywhere near him originally? It landed a metre from my foot and skidded and nearly hit him.
“I’m human. Things happen like that. I think if I did that a million times over it wouldn’t have gone this way.”
While the incident wasn’t nearly as bad as Alexander Zverev attacking a chair umpire with his racquet earlier in the season, Nadal called for tougher sanctions on similar behaviour from the ATP.
“These situations are happening more and more often. The ATP should put a stop to this,” Nadal said.
“Otherwise, sooner or later, something major will happen.”
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‘Do I tell him how to act?’: Kyrgios’ brush with Ben Stiller during Nadal defeat
Source: Philippines Alive
