"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."

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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."