Kyrgios pulls out of Portugal tournament to attend grandfather’s funeral
Nick Kyrgios celebrated his birthday on Thursday saying his grandfather was 'always supporting, always knew the score, what was going on'. Photo: AAP Photo: AAP
Three weeks out from the French Open, Australian tennis champion Nick Kyrgios has pulled out of a European clay court tournament to fly home to Canberra for his grandfather’s funeral.
In a social media post, Kyrgios, who turned 22 on Thursday, said he felt he needed to “be around my loved ones at this time as well as pay my respects to my Papou who I loved very much”.
“I just want to take the opportunity to let you all know, especially the people of Estoril and Cascais know, that I have unfortunately withdrawn from Millenium Estoril Open to go back to Australia and attend my grandfather’s funeral,” Kyrgios, ranked 16 in the world, said on Saturday.
“It’s no secret that Estoril has been a very special stop for me on the ATP World Tour, so the decision was a hard one but my family is very important to me and I feel I need to be around my loved ones at this time as well as pay respects to my Papou, who I loved very much.
“I hope you can all understand and respect my decision.”
Announcement. ❤️🙏🏽😢 pic.twitter.com/2fvZVZghcJ
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) April 28, 2017
On Thursday, Kyrgios thanked everyone “for all the kind messages and birthday well wishes”.
“It was a tough 24-48 hours,” he said.
Kyrgios said his grandfather Christos “fought as hard” as he could on Instagram.
