Kyrgios loses to wild card Shapovalov jokes he played too much Pokemon Go

Nick Kyrgios refused to be drawn on his Rogers Cup preparations, having joked that Pokemon Go took up more of his time than tennis before losing to world number 370 Denis Shapovalov.

The 17-year-old Canadian wildcard, and Wimbledon junior champion, beat the 11th seed 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 6-3 at the ATP 1000 event in Toronto on Monday.

It is the latest let-down in a below-par 2016 for the Australian, who made 18 double faults – prompting him to claim: “Jeez, that’s pretty bad, I need to practice a little more…”

A dispirited Kyrgios appeared to stop trying in his fourth-round Wimbledon defeat to Andy Murray and, returning to the court for the first time since, things had seemingly not improved in Canada.

Just a few hours before taking to court, Kyrgios tweeted “Eat, sleep, Pokemon Go”, having claimed a day earlier that he was playing the mobile game sweeping the world more than he was practising tennis.

Just quietly, how good is Pokemon Go. Honestly been playing that more than tennis

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) July 24, 2016

At one point Kyrgios was caught by the court microphones telling a crowd member that he did not want to be on court, adding: “I’m going straight home after this.”

Kyrgios had admitted to playing video games instead of preparing to face Murray at the All England Club, but – with his pre-match routines firmly in the spotlight – he was unmoved.

“I don’t know. I just didn’t play great,” a clearly irritated Kyrgios told reporters when quizzed on his preparation.

“Obviously my preparation hasn’t been…

“I’m not going to tell you what I did or didn’t do to prepare for this match. I just played pretty bad, but he played great and he earned it.

Nick Kyrgios comes into press wth a big bag of ice strapped to his knee. “He played great and he earned it.” pic.twitter.com/wD8eyzhQyu

— Rogers Cup Toronto (@rogerscup) July 26, 2016

“Obviously he was excited playing in front of his home crowd. I know what it feels like to come off one of your biggest junior results and then play in one of your home tournaments.

“I think the Canadians support their athletes a little better than the Australians do.”