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Things have gone from bad to worse for Tennis Australia.
First the federation banned Bernard Tomic from Davis Cup, after which the 22-year-old took a wild card into the U.S. Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, lost in the first round, flew to Miami, and got arrested. Then a spat between Nick Kyrgios and Patrick Rafter stole some headlines.
Now Australia is failing on the court, too. The host nation trails Kazakhstan 2-0 after the first day of Davis Cup quarterfinal action despite being favored in both singles rubbers. After Thanasi Kokkinakis got clobbered by Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 on Friday afternoon, Kyrgios was stunned by Aleksandr Nedovyesov 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 6-4.
During the loss, Kyrgios broke two rackets in succession, blasted a ball out of the stadium, and muttered, “I don’t want to be here”:
