The Nick Kyrgios no-show at the United Cup teams event is "no surprise" according to one of his biggest rivals.
The world No 22, who reached a first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon this year, was expected to be the talisman for the Australian team. And his scheduled opening clash in the mixed-gender event, against Britain's Cameron Norrie, appeared a mouth-watering one.
However, just minutes before Wednesday's press conference, Kyrgios dropped out of the Sydney-based tournament, throwing his team's plans into chaos. He had reportedly picked up a minor injury in training on Tuesday, and did not want to take any risks ahead of the Australian Open.
Greek rival Stefanos Tsitsipas wasn't shocked though, using the withdrawal to fire another verbal shot at the divisive star: "I don't see it as a surprise. I hope he enjoys his holidays," he told reporters.
The two players went head-to-head in a volatile contest at SW19 this year, with Kyrgios winning the fiery clash in four sets. Afterwards, Tsitsipas said: " It’s constant bullying, that’s what he does.
“He bullies the opponents. He was probably a bully at school himself. I don’t like bullies. I don’t like people that put other people down. He has some good traits in his character, as well. But he also has a very evil side to him, which if it’s exposed, it can really do a lot of harm and bad to the people around him."
The Canberra man didn't exactly seem perturbed by pulling out, instead taking to Instagram to post a video of himself enjoying Sydney. He captioned it "Beautiful day."
Australian captain Sam Stosur said he only learnt of developments 10 minutes before the press conference, and has since moved Alex de Minaur into the No 1 men's position, with Jason Kubler promoted to the No 2 spot. And he valiantly tried to play down the absence of his star man.
"We have got amazing players on this team," he said. "Alex (de Minaur) is one of the best players in the world, Koobs (Kubler) has had an incredible year this year as well qualifying for a couple of slams so as far as the men's team goes, we are in very capable hands still so I am not concerned that our chances are just diminished greatly or anything like that."
