The Winston-Salem Open professional tennis tournament has returned after a year's leave due to the pandemic. The week-long event is off to a bumpy start.
As Saturday's qualifying matches got underway, the Hawk-Eye tennis officiating system — electronic machines used to replace line judges — malfunctioned which led to delays. Then, Sunday night's highly touted first-round matchup between Australian “bad boy” Nick Kyrgios and three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray never happened. With the Stadium Court crowd in place, the tournament director informed spectators that Kyrgios had withdrawn due to a knee injury.
Kyrgios later addressed the fans' disappointment during a brief press conference.
“You know, I know that people have been looking forward to it,” said Kyrgios. “I know that most of the tickets were sold because of my name or Andy's name, but at the end of the day I have to look after my body. Obviously, I know that not every player can be as exciting as me. But at the end of the day, I have to look after my knee and I haven't played much.”
A lottery was held to find a lucky loser — a player knocked out of the early rounds of the tournament but given a second chance — to go up against Murray, and after the first players contacted declined to play, former Wake Forest Demon Deacon tennis star Noah Rubin agreed to fill in.
The crowd tried gamely to pump up Rubin but following his tough three-set qualifying round loss against Lucas Pouille less than an hour earlier, he was no match for Murray, losing in straight sets 6-2, 6-0.