Wimbledon 2021 - 'I can't serve anymore' - Injury forces Nick Kyrgios to retire against Felix Auger-Aliassime

ByCoral Barry

Published 03/07/2021 at 16:19 GMT

Nick Kyrgios has had to bow out of Wimbledon after retiring from his third round match against Felix Auger-Aliassime. The Australian cruised through the first set, but then began to suffer from an abdominal problem that progressively got worse. “I can’t anymore. It’s getting worse and worse. I can’t serve anymore. I can’t do it,” he said.

Nick Kyrgios was forced to retire from his Wimbledon third round match against Felix Auger-Aliassime on Saturday.

The Australian has been one of the stand-out stars of the first week in Wimbledon and won the first set 6-2 before being unable to continue due to an abdominal injury.

Kyrgios was clearly in discomfort in the second set and told his trainer he had hurt himself.

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"I don't want to completely f***ing tear the s*** out of it and then not play for the next whole year."

Kyrgios tried to continue but eventually conceded he was only interested in seeing out the set.

"It's getting worse, I'm just finishing this set,” he told his coach. That is exactly what Kyrgios did, losing the set 6-1, before calling it a day.

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“I can’t anymore. It’s getting worse and worse. I can’t serve anymore. I can’t do it,” he said before turning to Auger-Aliassime and saying, “Sorry brother.”

It is the first time since the pandemic began that Kyrgios has played outside of Australia and as he became one of the few dissenting voices in sport who insisted no major events should be going on during the health crisis.

Kyrgios said after the match he could feel his body wasn’t quite up to the speed of Grand Slam tennis.

“I haven’t played this level of tennis in a long time and obviously playing someone as good as Felix. I needed my main weapon, my serve, to be firing on all cylinders,” Kyrgios said on court after his retirement.

I just felt my ab, I definitely did something to it towards the end of the first set. That’s the way it goes. He’s a hell of a player, he’s going to do some special things in this sport.

“Playing out here and having this support has kind of given me a second wind. I reckon I’m going to come back and play for a bit longer.

“I did all I could to prepare, to get here. I beat a heck of a player in the first round and I played a great second round and just to get out here again and play two sets.

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“I told myself I’d play as long as I could and I’m sorry that I couldn’t give you more today.”

For Auger-Aliassime, it is a great win despite the circumstances as the 20-year-old Canadian reached the fourth round of Wimbledon. He will play Alexander Zverev or Taylor Fritz in the next round.

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