Nick Kyrgios apologises for nearly hitting ball boy with racket thrown in fury

Nick Kyrgios has apologised after he nearly hit a ball boy with a racket hurled in anger following his loss to Rafael Nadal in Indian Wells.

The volatile Australian received a warning for smashing a racket during the first set and then lost the set after being given a point penalty for swearing at a spectator.

Kyrgios regained his composure to take the second set but, after losing a close decider to go down 7-6 (0) 5-7 6-4, the 26-year-old flung his racket angrily and a ball boy standing at the back of the court had to move out of the way to avoid being hit as it bounced up and flew into the advertising hoarding.

Kyrgios took exception to being asked about the incident in his press conference, saying: “Did I throw the racket anywhere near him originally?

“It landed a metre from my foot and skidded and nearly hit him. I’m human. Things happen like that. Obviously it was a very misfortunate bounce. I think if I did that a million times over it wouldn’t have gone that way.”

Kyrgios later took to Instagram to apologise and tweeted an exchange of messages with the ball boy in which he promised to give him a racket.

It is less than a month since Alexander Zverev was disqualified from the Mexican Open in Acapulco for losing his temper and bashing his racket against the umpire’s chair just below the official’s foot.

Nadal spoke out strongly in favour of heavier sanctions – Zverev was given a suspended ban – and he said after this latest incident: “When you allow the players to do stuff, then you don’t know where is the line, and it’s a tricky thing.

“But, because these situations are happening more and more often, probably ATP should review things and make decisions. Not about today’s match because I didn’t see what happened in