Nick Kyrgios beaten by Kevin Anderson in Roland Garros second round.
Paris, France, 2 June 2017 | Darren Walton, AAP
Australia’s last man standing crashed out of the season’s second Grand Slam in Paris with a 5-7 6-4 6-1 6-2 second-round loss to tough South African Kevin Anderson on Thursday.
Kyrgios entered the tournament under a fitness cloud – and hip and shoulder niggles undoubtedly contributed to his demise as the 22-year-old coughed up an uncharacteristic nine double-faults in the four-set defeat.
After dominating early and in one game delivering an extraordinary four straight aces, Kyrgios’s serve faltered when it became apparent that hip and shoulder complaints made it impossible to extract any leg drive and follow through for his most lethal weapon.
But it was emotional torment that undermined Kyrgios’s campaign.
“After my grandpa passing, I just lost a lot of motivation to do anything, really,” Kyrgios admitted after the match.
“When I was back home, it was tough. I mean, I can’t talk about it. I can’t.
“But I haven’t really put together any good training in the last couple weeks. Obviously, just trying to manage some niggles.
“And, obviously, I haven’t really structured any good training in the last five weeks.
“So I don’t think I was match-ready to play best-of-five sets, but he played well today. So he was too good.”
After a blazing hardcourt run in the United States – including two wins over defending French Open champion Novak Djokovic – Christos Kyrgios’s death and his grandson’s injuries limited Australia’s top men’s hope to a build-up of just four claycourt matches.
“Obviously, it’s disappointing just to lose, but, to be fair, my preparation for the claycourt season hasn’t been great. I feel like I’ve way underdone,” the 18th seed said.
Casey Dellacqua was the only Australian winner on day five of the tournament, teaming with American Rajeev Ram to beat French pair Virginie Razzano and Vincent Millot 7-5 6-3 in the opening round of mixed doubles.