Nick Kyrgios believes his doubters owe him an apology for criticising his decision to withdraw from the United Cup on the day before the pre-Australian Open team tournament began.

Kyrgios was set to line up for Team Australia at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena from Thursday but instead faces a race against the clock to recover from an ankle injury in time for next month’s Australian Open in Melbourne.

The world No.22’s decision to pull out forced a last-minute reshuffle, with Alex de Minaur promoted to top seed in Australia’s mens singles matches and Jordan Kubler brought in.

Kyrgios’ scratching prompted Ticketmaster to offer fans free tickets to two of the other ties being played later in the tournament.

A case of COVID-19 forced Kyrgios out of the corresponding tournament last summer, the ATP Cup, and he also sat out the Davis Cup in 2022 for a third consecutive year.

His latest withdrawal prompted reaction from his contemporaries, with Stefanos Tsitsipas saying he hoped Kyrgios “enjoys his holidays” and Cameron Norrie admitting was he “disappointed” not to be facing Kyrgios on Thursday.

Kyrgios claimed the media had painted him as a “pure villain” and said he remained a drawcard for the sport, pointing to the forthcoming documentary Point Break in which he is prominently featured.

“Haha so after all this, all the media, journalism saying how bad I am for the sport, disrespecting the game & just a pure villain, I am going to be the number 1 episode on Netflix… to grow our fan base, basically trying to put tennis on the map again,” Kyrgios wrote on Twitter.

“And essentially putting more money in everyone’s pockets that’s involved with tennis, you all look really ridiculous now.

“Your apology should be as loud as your disrespect was.”

Australia faces Great Britain on Thursday evening for their first tie, with the opening match between de Minaur and Norrie set to begin from 7pm local time.

Afterwards, women’s second seed Zoe Hives will face Great Britain’s Katie Swan.