Nick Kyrgios gives reporter a serve on ball-kid near-miss after Nadal defeat

Indian Wells, March 18: After his elimination from the Indian Wells Masters, Nick Kyrgios fired back at a reporter who questioned him about an incident after the match where he launched his racket, almost hitting a ball-kid.

Rafael Nadal ultimately emerged victorious in the match 7-6 (7-0) 5-7 6-4, after shaking hands with Nadal and the match umpire, Kyrgios spiked his racket into the ground as he walked back to his bench.

Speaking with post-match media, Kyrgios was sarcastic and rude when questioned about it.

"That's a question you're going to say after a three-hour battle against Nadal – that's what you've come here with?" he said.

"What would you like me to say about it? Obviously was that my intention? No, because did I throw the racquet 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 [sic] bounce. What do you want me to say? It was three metres away from the kid.

"It didn't hit him, it was an accident, it most definitely wasn't like Zverev, it was a complete accident, didn't hit him thankfully, it wasn't my intention so thankfully the ball kid's okay. Great question though, unbelievable stuff."

The 26-year-old was at his polarising and simultaneous best and worst against Nadal - getting held to zero in the first-set tie-break, fighting back to win the second set with exciting ground strokes, before melting down in the third set, including an argument with the chair umpire.

It was nevertheless a positive week at Indian Wells for Kyrgios, who looked forward to next week's event in Miami. After another tough match against the 'King of Clay', he said that he may not play this season's clay-court events

"I'm thankful for the wildcard in Miami," he said. "I obviously want to continue, keep this momentum going. I feel like I'm playing some pretty good tennis and I'm healthy so I'm taking advantage of that while I can.

"I'm going to go to Houston and play, and then I'm going to go home, rest up and probably just rest for the grass season.

"I can play on clay, it's just not something that I value and I don't really have any goals to achieve anything on clay or something like that, and I don't really enjoy playing on it, so I'm just going to rest up and get ready for the grass."