‘It was a crazy bounce’ – Nick Kyrgios apologises after nearly striking ball boy with racket
Nick Kyrgios has apologised to the ball boy he nearly hit with his racket at Indian Wells.
The incident came at the end of his quarter-final defeat to Rafael Nadal when, after the handshake, he threw his racket to the ground.
It bounced up immediately and travelled to the back of the court, where the ball boy had to take evasive action to avoid being struck by it.
Nadal has called for the ATP to intervene and punish players for such incidents to try to avoid a ‘major incident’ before it happens.
For now, though, Kyrgios has simply apologised and reached out to the ball boy, Tei Park, personally.
“I just want to apologise to that ball kid at the end of the match,” Kyrgios wrote on Instagram. “It was a complete accident and was frustrated at the end of the match.
“My racket took a crazy bounce and was never my intention. If anyone knows who that ball kid is, send me a message and I will send a racket to him. I’m glad he’s OK!”
Kyrgios later shared screenshots of the text messages he shared with Park, showing that all was fine between them.
Made a new friend in the process 🤍 accidents happen but we can go out of our way to make things better 🥶👑 pic.twitter.com/G0gI5QpmBy
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) March 18, 2022
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