Despite the negative energy, Kyrgios managed to push the set to a tiebreaker. But that’s where his game finally followed his demeanor downward. Up 2-0 in the breaker, he lost seven of the next eight points and the set. F-bombs flew.
And that was essentially the end of the show. In the second set, Kyrgios began to hold his right shoulder, and began to rush from one point to the next. He flipped a drop shot wide, and tried a big second serve at break point and double-faulted. Only when he was down 0-5 did he show off a little of his shot-making talent, in a rally that ended with him missing a tweener lob just long.
The match was a sort of carbon copy of Kyrgios’s loss to Botic Van de Zandschulp in Indian Wells. Both times he played well enough to reach a first-set-tiebreaker; both times he made crucial errors in the breaker; both times, after losing the first set, he stopped offering any resistance.
Kyrgios turns 30 next month, and the signals he sends about his career are mixed. After the Australian Open, he said it might be the last time he plays there. This week, though, he was one of just 12 players to put his name on a PTPA lawsuit against the governing bodies of tennis, a move that would seem to indicate a longer-term interest in the sport’s future. He began his match against Khachanov looking ready to compete, and seemingly in tune with his coaching team; he ended by winning just seven points in the second set, and getting the match over with as quickly as he could.
Walking off court after being bageled in the second set, Kyrgios spotted a man in a wheelchair who asked for a selfie. The two took a photo together, with the fan pointing toward Kyrgios in a “he’s the man” gesture. Nothing, it seems can shake the faith of the anti-hero’s fan club. Wherever he takes his show next, and whatever he does or says on court, they’ll be waiting.
