Karen Khachanov stood on the court, arms raised, basking in a rowdy crowd’s cheers after reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open. Not far away, Nick Kyrgios took out some of his frustration at the so-close-yet-so-far result on a pair of rackets.
First, shortly after the last point of his 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4 loss to Khachanov, Kyrgios cracked his piece of equipment against the ground — once, twice, three, four times. Then, for good measure, Kyrgios grabbed yet another racket out of his bag, reared back and hit that one on the sideline, too.
Kyrgios could not quite follow up his victory over defending champion Daniil Medvedev at Flushing Meadows, bowing out in a high-quality, topsy-turvy quarterfinal that began Tuesday night and concluded more than 3½ hours later at about 1 a.m. ET Wednesday in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“It’s just devastating. Like, it’s heartbreaking,” said Kyrgios, a 27-year-old from Australia who was the runner-up at Wimbledon in July. “Pretty much every other tournament during the year is a waste of time, really. You should just run up and show up at a Grand Slam. That’s what you’re remembered by.”
Nick Kyrgios lost to Karen Khachanov of Russia at the U.S. Open, in a duel between two of the hardest hitters in tennis. For Kyrgios, the talented but temperamental Australian, the loss came after he eliminated the defending champion, Daniil Medvedev.https://t.co/Y0rSozQvj4
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 7, 2022