"He ducked. It was an accident, it wasn't like Zverev" - Kyrgios defends racquet smash that almost hit a ball kid

Nick Kyrgios lashed out at a reporter who dared ask him about a racquet smash that almost hit a ball boy after his stormy defeat to Rafael Nadal at Indian Wells.

The Aussie lost a tense deciding set in the quarter-final clash before exploding in rage. After shaking hands with his opponent and the umpire, Kyrgios hurled his racquet into the ground – inadvertently sending it charging down the court towards the ball boy. It would have likely struck the youngster, had they not taken evasive action.

He said:

“What would you like me to say about it? Obviously, was that my intention? No. Because I threw a racquet. Did I throw the racquet anywhere near him originally?. It landed a metre from my foot and skidded and nearly hit him. I’m human. Things happen like that. Obviously it was a very misfortunate bounce. I think if I did that a million times over it wouldn’t have gone that way. And what do you want me to say? It was three metres away from the kid."

When reminded that the kid had to duck to avoid it, he said:

"He ducked. Jesus. All right. It was an accident. It was most definitely not like Zverev. I didn’t hit him, thankfully. It wasn’t my intention. So thankfully the ball kid’s okay. Great question, though. Unbelievable stuff."

Kyrgios took to Instagram later to apologise for the action writing:

"Hey guys, I just wanna apologise to that ball kid at the end of the match!. It was a complete accident and was frustrated at the end of the match. My racket took a crayz 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."