Australia\u2019s Nick Kyrgios \u201clacks respect for the public, the rival and himself\u201d, says world number two Rafael Nadal.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion lost a dramatic second-round match to world number 72 Kyrgios 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (8-6) at the Mexican Open in Acapulco.
Kyrios served underarm late on during the match against the Spaniard.
Nadal said: \u201cHe\u2019s a player who has the talent to win Grand Slams, a player who can fight for the top rankings, but there\u2019s a reason he is where he is.\u201d
Kyrgios saved three match points before beating Nadal, who was playing his first tournament since losing to Novak Djokovic in January\u2019s Australian Open final.
\u201cHe is a very dangerous player but lacks consistency,\u201d Nadal added.
\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s a bad guy. I think he\u2019s a good guy.\u201d
Kyrgios, 23, saved nine break points in the match and came from 6-3 down in the third-set tie-break to win in three hours and three minutes, before falling to the floor in celebration.
\u201cI\u2019m different, Rafa\u2019s different,\u201d said Kyrgios, who plays Switzerland\u2019s Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals.
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t know the journey I have been through. He doesn\u2019t know anything about me so I\u2019m not going to listen at all.
\u201cThat\u2019s the way I play. He\u2019s very slow in between points. The rule in the book says you have to play at the speed of the server. Rafa has the speed every time.
\u201cI\u2019m not going to comment on his game. He has got his game and I have got mine.\u201d
At the end of the first set, Kyrgios complained to a trainer about feeling ill but said he did not want to retire because he was wary of a possible backlash.
He saved four break points in the ninth game of the second set, and a further five in the sixth game of the final set.
Nadal took only one of his 10 break point chances in the match.
In the women\u2019s draw, American top seed Sloane Stephens suffered a shock 6-3 6-3 defeat by Brazilian qualifier Beatriz Haddad Maia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia\u2019s Nick Kyrgios \u201clacks respect for the public, the rival and himself\u201d, says world number two Rafael Nadal. The 17-time Grand Slam champion lost a dramatic second-round match to world number 72 Kyrgios 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (8-6) at the Mexican Open in Acapulco. Kyrios served underarm late on during the match against the Spaniard. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}