Kyrgios out of Mallorca tournament with abdominal injury

PALMA, Spain (AP) — Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the Mallorca Championships on Wednesday because of an abdominal injury, saying he didn’t want to aggravate the problem ahead of Wimbledon.

The 45th-ranked Australian made the announcement before his round-of-16 match against Roberto Bautista Agut.

“I have been playing a lot of great matches lately and unfortunately I woke up with a pain in my abs. I went to see the tournament doctor right away and he advised that I don’t play tonight,“ Kyrgios said. ”I really value the Mallorca Championships but I will follow his advice as I don’t want to risk Wimbledon next week.”

Kyrgios needed more than two hours to defeat Laslo Djere 5-7, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (1) in the previous round of the grass-court tournament that serves as preparation for Wimbledon.

The Australian was one of the biggest attractions in Mallorca, along with top-ranked Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Tsitsipas opened with a 6-4, 6-4 win over 40th-ranked Ilya Ivashka on Wednesday without facing a break point.

“I felt like after my first serve, I was really able to get behind the ball and pick the right spots,“ Tsitsipas said. ”It was I guess very difficult for the opponent to be able to adjust to this. I was doing it very well. I was very dedicated to that. It was really good for me from start to finish.”

The sixth-ranked Tsitsipas will next face American Marcos Giron, who defeated countryman Mackenzie McDonald 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Medvedev will debut against Aslan Karatsev later Wednesday.

___

More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

SHARE: