Kyrgios Pulls Out Injured Just Before Japan Open Quarter-final

Tokyo, Oct 7 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Oct, 2022 ) :Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the Japan Open just before his quarter-final on Friday with a sore left knee, calling it "heartbreaking".

The mercurial Australian tennis star had been scheduled to pay third-seeded American Taylor Fritz, who will now advance into the last four.

At a hastily announced press conference when the match was due to begin, world number 20 Kyrgios said he had "been playing amazing tennis all year" but it had been physically taxing.

"I actually was dealing with a bit of a knee issue around the US Open time, and got back home, probably didn't take enough time off, to be honest. I went straight back into training," said the 27-year-old.

"It's heartbreaking. When the body lets you down, it's not a good feeling." Kyrgios will now head home, but said he still plans to play several events in the run-up to the Australian Open in January, and promised to return to the Japanese tournament in 2023.

Kyrgios, who beat Poland's Kamil Majchrzak 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the second round on Thursday, said his knee had "not really" been an issue in his singles or doubles matches, but it had felt "pretty sore" while warming up on Friday.

"It's probably in this case something overloading, rather than not being fit enough," he explained.

"It's almost being too excited to get on the court, and maybe training a little bit too much."