Nick Kyrgios is a basketball fan and usually wears basketball shoes when he walks onto the court.
However, when preparing for his Cincinnati Masters match with American Denis Kudla, Kyrgios opened his bag, only to find that his tennis shoes were missing.
Not the most ideal preparation, but if any player was going to forget their playing shoes, it'd probably be Kyrgios.
Laughing to himself, the Australian explained that he forgot his shoes and waited as someone ran to the dressing room and grabbed them.
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"Sorry man, I left my shoes in the locker room," Kyrgios jokingly apologised to Kudla, who was waiting with the chair umpire at the net for the coin toss.
When a marshal handed the shoes to Kyrgios, there was a smattering of sarcastic applause.
Even the announcers weren’t necessarily surprised that a professional tennis player could forget his shoes.
Only @NickKyrgios 🙈🤣#CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/TPitUz7jV5
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 14, 2018
Once the match got underway, Kyrgios was at his entertaining best, winning the match in three sets after losing the first in a tiebreak.
During the first set, with Kudla on serve at 2-2 and 30-0 up, an audacious-yet-nonchalant tweener from Kyrgios forced a Kudla error on approach to the net.
"Kudla took the bait."
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 14, 2018
Can you possibly be more chill, @NickKyrgios
🤣😱 #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/5OEeUlHEPs
Against Kudla, Kyrgios smashed 39 aces to the American's 20 to help himself to the win, despite winning fewer points in the match (106 to Kudla's 113).
The 6-7 (2-7) 7-5 7-6 (11-9) win set the Australian up for a second round clash with Croatian Borna Ćorić, who defeated Daniil Medvedev in straight sets.
Kyrgios is eyeing off his second-consecutive Cincinnati Masters final after he reached the final two last year, only to be swept aside by Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets.
