Nick Kyrgios Holds Shoulder Injury Responsible For His Round One Defeat in Zhuhai

The Australian tennis player, Nick Kyrgios fell to Andreas Seppi in the first round of Zhuhai  Open 2019 and he held his shoulder injury to be responsible for his first-round exit. He revealed that he was “struggling a lot”. Despite that pain, he played the doubles match right after his opening round defeat and lost in the opening round there as well. Now, Kyrgios is contemplating on taking some time off from tennis.

“I was battling with a bit of a shoulder/collar bone injury,” said Kyrgios. “At this rate, I’m not thinking about playing until my shoulder’s — or I don’t even know what it is — but until the front of my shoulder feels better and I can serve. I mean the reason I lost today was that I couldn’t serve. If I could serve, it would have been a pretty routine win for me, to be honest.”

World Number 27, Kyrgios is considering to take a break from tennis and spend time on his injury recovery. “For sure, I mean at this rate I wouldn’t be surprised. I wasn’t able to even serve at a reasonable pace. I’m probably not going to bother playing until I can get it right again. So until now and then I’ve got a lot of time, I can rest, recover, get my shoulder right,” he said.

At Laver Cup 2019, he withdrew from his matches scheduled on Sunday and cited shoulder injury to be his reason for withdrawal. That day, he was drawn to play Dominic Thiem. It was surprising to see Kyrgios playing professional tennis as on Sunday he was experiencing shoulder pain and held a racquet within two days. 

Nick Kyrgios was defeated by Andreas Seppi at Zhuhai Open 2019. The sixth seed, Kyrgios lost 7-6(5), 6-1 in 65 minutes to the Italian tennis player in the opening round of the Chinese tournament.