Australia's Davis Cup title hopes are on the verge of
collapse with Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios losing their opening singles
matches on a day of high drama.
Kokkinakis lost 6-4 6-3 6-3 to Mikhail Kukushkin in just
over two hours on Friday, before Kyrgios fell 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (7-2) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4
to world No.115 Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
At 2-0 down, Australia must win Saturday's doubles encounter
just to keep the tie alive.
The disappointing on-court results capped a forgettable day
for Australian tennis after Bernard Tomic was arrested in America overnight.
Tomic was taken into custody after failing to follow police
orders to leave his $A7000-a-night penthouse at the W Hotel following a night
of loud partying.
"Obviously that's the first thing that came up on my
Facebook when I had a scroll. I saw about eight mug shots of him,"
Kokkinakis said after his straight-sets defeat.
"We're trying to block it out. It didn't seem too bad.
"We're just trying to do our own thing. We've got the
tie, which I tried to focus on.
"Obviously you don't want to have that sort of issue
happen very often. It's not great for anyone.
"But I still feel confident us boys can get it
done."
Tomic should have been with the Davis Cup team in Darwin.
But he was overlooked for selection following his outburst
against Tennis Australia's hierarchy at Wimbledon.
With Tomic unavailable, Kokkinakis was handed responsibility
for opening the tie against Kazakhstan's top-ranked player.
Kokkinakis looked nervous early, before making a brief
fightback in the second set.
But with his first serve abandoning him, the 19-year-old
struggled to keep pace throughout the contest.
"I wasn't able to find my game. And when I found it in
the second set, I got broken straight back, which killed me," Kokkinakis
said.
"I didn't find my rhythm today.
"I'm taking it pretty hard at the moment. I'm pretty
disappointed."
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