Nick Kyrgios’s injury curse continues against Alexander Zverev

THE recurring nightmare that is Nick Kyrgios’ life at the moment continued to haunt the Aussie tennis star on Friday.

Kyrgios just can’t stay on the court.

TENNIS’S battle of the young guns failed to reach the heights we were hoping for as Nick Kyrgios’s ailing body let him down again in his clash against Alexander Zverev at the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Friday.

Kyrgios went down a break early in the pair’s third round encounter to go behind 2-1 and life only got worse from there. He called the trainer out twice in the first set for treatment on the problematic hip that ended his Wimbledon campaign last month.

Kyrgios said he was experiencing “sharp pains” and wasn’t optimistic about how he was going to stay on the court.

“It’s obviously not going to get better the more I play,” he said.

Kyrgios 1) needs hip treatment; 2) is renowed for not practicing enough; 3) admits he's under prepped for tourneys; 4) is suffering now;
1/ pic.twitter.com/tIp4LnS5PB

— TroubleFault (@troublefault) August 10, 2017

But to his credit Kyrgios played on. He lost the first set but took a 2-1 lead in the second before Zverev broke him to surge to a 3-2 advantage. From there he kept his foot on the throat, emerging as a 6-4 6-3 winner. He now faces South African Kevin Anderson in the quarter-finals in Montreal shortly after defeating him in Washington.

The Aussie’s body has now proven his biggest enemy in the past four tournaments he’s played. He retired after the first set of his clash against Donald Young at the Aegon Championships in Birmingham in June, withdrew from his first-round match at the All England Club with a hip injury and last week he was booed off the court after pulling the pin against Tennys Sandgren at the Citi Open in Washington with a shoulder problem.

Kyrgios gets booed by some fans as he exits the court after retiring with an injury pic.twitter.com/mYILEE4YD4

— Kelyn Soong (@KelynSoong) August 3, 2017

While the Aussie’s star is losing its shine, Zverev is making the tennis world gush. The 20-year-old has improved his world ranking from No. 20 to No. 8 by reaching the round of 16 at Wimbledon and claiming ATP titles in Rome and Washington.

The German dispatched Anderson 6-4 6-4 in the final of the Citi Open and has already been touted as a future world No. 1 by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

That same tag used to accompany Kyrgios but an inability to live up to his potential — which has more to do with his attitude than his talent — has consistently halted his progress.

Kyrgios’s only previous meetings with Zverev at Miami and Indian Wells this year both resulted in wins, but the German finally changed the tide with a win of his own in Canada.

This match was awesome, Without looking at the result, what beautiful points @NickKyrgios pic.twitter.com/VIHQMw5dpq

— Nick Kyrgios France (@kyrgiosfrance) August 11, 2017

I watched both matches courtside at IW and Miami when Cheerios Kyrgios won both, tonight A2Z looks so much more confident in the matchup

— Brad Gilbert (@bgtennisnation) August 10, 2017

Kyrgios set up the battle of the hottest prospects in men’s tennis with a straight-sets winner over Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi on Wednesday, needing only 63 minutes to see off the world No. 38. He won the second-round ATP clash 6-2 6-3, firing 10 aces to Lorenzi’s one and winning 96 per cent of points on his first serve.

Zverev’s path to the round of 16 was less straightforward, saving three match points against Richard Gasquet in a 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-3) victory. One of the match points was saved when Zverev ended a 49-shot rally with a forehand winner.

But since the last clash in Miami in March, their paths have diverged. Kyrgios was the world No. 16 at the time, but a spate of injuries, poor form and erratic behaviour has resulted in his ranking dropping to 24.