‘Good on him for showing he is human’ – Nick Kyrgios defends Carlos Alcaraz

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A delighted Carlos Alcaraz

Nick Kyrgios has defended Carlos Alcaraz for throwing his racquet in frustration in his defeat at the Canadian Open in Toronto.

The Australian declared Alcaraz is going to be “carrying the tennis load for the next decade” and thinks it is good that he showed “he is human.”

Alcaraz was defeated 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 by world No 14 Tommy Paul in the quarter-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto this week. It was his second straight loss to the American at the Canadian Open, having also fell to him in three sets in Montreal in 2022.

After double-faulting to lose the opening set, the 20-year-old expressed his irritation by throwing his racquet at his chair.

In response to a post of a video of Alcaraz throwing his racquet with the caption, ‘No code violations for boy wonder’, Kyrgios supported the 20-year-old.

“Who the f**k cares. The dude is gonna be carrying the tennis load for the next decade. Good on him for showing he is human. Frustrated [for] not playing up to standards. Also let’s start giving codes (code violations) to umpires,” Kyrgios tweeted.

The Spaniard was competing in his first tour event since beating 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the final of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships. The world No 1 is a two-time major winner, having also claimed the 2022 US Open title.

Alcaraz also represented Spain at the Hopman Cup – a mixed team exhibition event –  the week after his Wimbledon triumph last month.

The world No 1 was asked whether competing at the tournament, which was played on clay, had affected his hard-court preparations.

“No, I don’t think so. I had a lot of days, you know, to prepare [for] this tournament on hard court. I practice well. So I don’t think Hopman Cup has something bad, you know, about this tournament,” said the Spaniard in his press conference.

Kyrgios recently announced his withdrawal from the upcoming US Open due to the wrist problem that also prevented him from playing at Wimbledon. The 28-year-old has missed all four Grand Slams this year and has played just one match – a defeat to Wu Yibing at the ATP 250 event in Stuttgart in June.

READ MORE: Elena Rybakina ‘destroyed’ after winning Montreal epic at 2:55 am

Carlos Alcaraz Nick Kyrgios

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