Slovakia’s Martin Klizan found himself on the short end of the stick in more ways than one during his first-round encounter with Nick Kyrgios at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis championships.
First, he was outplayed after he won the first set off the 20-year-old Aussie. Second, he simply ran out of patience during his 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 loss.
Watch (above) as Klizan throws in the towel on match point, hitting a right-handed forehand wide to end the pair’s first career meeting in strange fashion. Klizan, like Kyrgios, had won a title in his last appearance (Rotterdam for Klizan, Marseille for Kyrgios), but he didn’t have enough in the tank to contend with the unpredictable and effective stylings of Kyrgios on this day.
He tossed in 11 double faults and saved only one of seven break points.
All of it left him feeling pretty down in the dumps:
Full credit to Kyrgios for winning this match. He showed a lot of maturity, coming from Marseille just two days ago and winning on a different court in different conditions in a different continent. Many players his age would be prone to suffering an emotional and/or physical letdown. For a while, it looked like Kyrgios was going to fold, but he battled hard and took over the match from an experienced veteran to get a big win.
He’ll face Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin in the second round.