Nick Kyrgios believes Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt threw him under the bus by expressing frustrations with the way he communicated his late withdrawal from the United Cup.
Citing an ankle injury, Kyrgios pulled out of the new mixed-gender team tournament on the day before it began, thrusting Alex de Minaur into the top-seeded match-ups and opening up an opportunity for Jason Kubler.
The impact of Kyrgios’s scratching was laid bare on Thursday night, when de Minaur, who had been preparing to face right-handed Dan Evans, was defeated by left-handed world No.14 Cameron Norrie in straight sets.
Kyrgios told The Sydney Morning Herald he needed to prioritise his preparations for next month’s Australian Open but after de Minaur’s loss, Hewitt said it was the way Kyrgios went about withdrawing that was most difficult to swallow.
Despite being captain, Hewitt only learned Kyrgios had pulled out at the same time as the rest of the team: ten minutes before Australia faced the press on Wednesday.
When he tried to contact Kyrgios thereafter, Hewitt did not immediately receive a response.
“It was pretty tough not knowing what was going on the last 24 hours,” Hewitt said on Thursday night.
“It was more probably the lack of communication.
“If it was just worrying Nick, that’s one thing, but when it revolves around the team and other people and I guess their preparation … they want to be playing as well as they can not just in this event but also leading into the Australian Open.
“That’s probably the hardest thing.”
Kyrgios wasn’t to be the last Australian to pull out of a United Cup match at the 11th hour; Ajla Tomljanovic tweaked her left knee on Friday and pulled out of her clash with Great Britain’s Harriet Dart.
After Maddison Inglis was announced as her replacement, Kyrgios took a swipe at Hewitt by questioning whether Tomljanovic would face similar criticism from Australia’s female captain.
“Mmm I wonder if (Sam) Stosur will throw her under the bus like our captain did for me … ‘hard to prepare when you don’t know what’s going on’,” Kyrgios wrote on Twitter.
Like de Minaur and Zoe Hives before her, Dart fell to her rival in straight sets to hand Great Britain a victory in the tie with two matches in hand.
