{"id":121889,"date":"2021-08-31T10:09:57","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T10:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=121889"},"modified":"2021-08-31T10:56:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T10:56:38","slug":"absurd-rule-that-derailed-kyrgios-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=121889","title":{"rendered":"'Absurd' rule that derailed Kyrgios' US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios<\/a> says it's "absurd" he had to travel to the corners of the court to use his towel, thanks to a COVID-enforced change of protocol.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios today bowed out of the US Open<\/a>, going down to 18th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets in the first round, 6-3 6-4 6-0.<\/p>\n

During the match, Kyrgios fell into a foul mood early, bickering with the chair umpire about having to walk his towel to the corners of the court instead of throwing it where he wanted.<\/p>\n

"My job is to come out here and play for the people, not walk back and forth between towels," Kyrgios said to chair umpire Carlos Bernardes during the match.<\/p>\n

"It's not part of the game. So texting someone's part of the game too? Taking 20-minute bathroom breaks is part of the game?"<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/p>\n

Kyrgios' bathroom comments were in response to Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas, who at key times during his win over Andy Murray today called for medical time outs and bathroom breaks.<\/a><\/p>\n

In usual circumstances the ball kids are summoned by the player to run the towel over to them when they need it, but that is not allowed under current COVID-19 protocols, with players forced to do it themselves at specific points behind the baseline.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios after the match explained his point of view, arguing that because he's fully vaccinated, it's unfair he's treated the same as players who aren't.<\/p>\n

"Look, the towel situation for me is incredibly stupid," Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n

"I'm one of the players on tour that is fully vaccinated. And as of now, I'm getting treated exactly the same as a player that is not vaccinated.<\/p>\n

"I feel like if I want my towel around the court, if it's not disturbing Bautista Agut's vision, if he doesn't see the towel, I don't see anything wrong with having my towel on the side or on the ground. And it's just absurd for me."<\/p>\n

\"Kyrgios<\/p>\n

Discussing his exit from the US Open, Kyrgios took nothing away from his Spanish opponent.<\/p>\n

"I just got outplayed, to be honest," Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n

"All credit to him; he's a hell of a player. I had a break point in the first set, unfortunately I didn't take it, and little things like that can turn a match when you play a world-class player like Roberto."<\/p>\n

– with AP<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios says it's "absurd" he had to travel to the corners of the court to use his towel, thanks to a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121889"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121889"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121891,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121889\/revisions\/121891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}