Nick Kyrgios has said he has no devotion to tennis and probably never would after completing a “diabolical” grand slam season with a drama-charged first-round defeat in the US Open.

Kyrgios complained of a “dead” shoulder during his 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 loss to fellow Australian John Millman before revealing far deeper concerns during an extraordinary post-match media conference.

Shattered by his latest flop, he admitted his coach deserved better when asked if he would continue working with Frenchman Sébastien Grosjean beyond the Open. “I don’t know, honestly. I’m not good enough for him,” Kyrgios said.

“He’s very dedicated. He’s an unbelievable coach. He probably deserves a player that is probably more dedicated to the game than I am. He deserves a better athlete than me.

“I’m not dedicated to the game at all.

“He’s helped me a lot, especially with the training, in training sessions, but there are players out there that are more dedicated, that want to get better, that strive to get better every day, [do the] the one-percenters. I’m not that guy.”

After winning an unprecedented 20 from 20 matches against lower-ranked or unseeded rivals at grand slams, Kyrgios has since suffered upset losses at five straight majors.

His troubles have coincided with the surfacing of a hip injury at last year’s US Open when he retired mid-match in the third round before the same issue forced him to abandon his Wimbledon campaign.

Kyrgios said his latest shoulder problem, which emerged early in the third set against Millman, came out of the blue. “I have had a diabolical year at these slams. It doesn’t surprise me,” he said.

“It’s just the story of my career, really. I will have good weeks; I’ll have bad weeks. It’s just a roller-coaster.”

The world No17 enjoyed one of his best weeks a fortnight ago when he reached his first Masters 1000 final in Cincinnati.

Now he feels exasperated. “In Cincinnati, I was not doing anything different. I was probably less dedicated than I was this week,” Kyrgios said.

“I was playing basketball at Lifetime Fitness every day for two hours. Like I played an hour of basketball before I played David Ferrer in the semi-final.

“I was going to ice cream, like this Graeter’s place getting a milkshake every day. I was less dedicated. And this week I was dedicated, and my shoulder starts hurting. I don’t know.”

Kyrgios’s premature exit follows a first-round loss at Wimbledon and second-round defeats in Paris and Melbourne. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I keep letting people down,” he said.

Despite his abject disappointment, Kyrgios said he planned to press ahead with plans to lead Australia into battle against Belgium in the Davis Cup semi-finals this month in Brussels.

Meanwhile, Australia’s women continued to fly the flag at Flushing Meadows. A resounding win on Thursday for in-form Daria Gavrilova gave Australia’s women’s their best start to the US Open in more than 30 years.

Gavrilova extended her hardcourt winning streak to six matches with a 6-2, 6-1 rout of Allie Kiick to join Ashleigh Barty, Arina Rodionova and Ajla Tomljanovic as first-round winners.



It’s the first time four Australian women have progressed to the second round at Flushing Meadows since 1986.



Barty later continued her breakthrough season with another milestone win to power into the third round. The resurgent former junior prodigy saw off Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 7-6 (9-7) to progress to the final 32 for the first time.

Barty will next play either Slovakian world No10 Dominika Cibulkova or American Sloane Stephens and is already guaranteed a career-high ranking well inside the world’s top 40.