In the end, it wasn’t meant to be for Nick Kyrgios. After making a much-awaited comeback at the Australian Open, the former Wimbledon finalist went down fighting in the first round, losing in straight sets against Jacob Fearnley earlier today. The Australian star had been plagued by injuries that kept him away from tennis for months. While his singles campaign didn’t go according to his plans, Kyrgios is still alive in doubles, partnering Thanasi Kokkinakis. However, soon after his singles loss, Kyrgios dropped a bombshell on his retirement and his relationship with the home crowd.

Despite playing in front of his local fans, Kyrgios hasn’t had the best of memories with them. A few years back, he was booed by his own fans after losing a five-setter despite giving his all. As a result, after opening up about his retirement plans, Kyrgios talked about his love-hate relationship with them.

During the post-match press conference, Kyrgios mentioned, “Realistically, I can’t really see myself probably playing singles again here. So yeah, it was it was special like taking that in it was pretty good.” While historically he didn’t have the best of memories playing in Melbourne, the crowd today was very vocal in his support.

Kyrgios further went on to add, “It was crazy like, you know? I know towards the start of my career, I had a very love-hate relationship with the crowd. I remember getting booted off that court, um. when I lost in five sets, and I tried my n-ts off, and I lost in five sets… For them to really see me fighting and still giving me that energy, it meant a lot.”

Meanwhile, Kyrgios has been quite vocal about his retirement plans. As he was readying for a comeback, the Australian star vowed to not suffer the same fate as the likes of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.

Nick Kyrgios wants to end his career on a high

The last year saw some of the legends of the sport ending their careers. Among them were the likes of Nadal and Murray, who suffered from injuries toward the latter stages of their careers. As a result, they couldn’t end their careers on a high and had disappointing defeats in their last tournaments. While Kyrgios is nearing retirement, he wants to cap off his career on a high, unlike Nadal and Murray.

During The Louis Theroux podcast, he said, “I look at how Andy Murray’s doing it now, and how Rafael [Nadal] is going out, I don’t want to be like that either. I don’t want to be kind of crawling to the finish line in a sense. What Andy Murray’s achieved in this sport is second to basically no-one … unless you are Novak [Djokovic], [Roger] Federer, or Nadal, like, the next person is Andy Murray. It’s like you’ve achieved everything. You deserve to go out, I think, a little bit more gracefully than he’s done. I think that the surgeries, the pain, it’s just not worth it, in my opinion.”

The Australian star knows what it takes to win at the highest level, having won the doubles title in Melbourne with Kokkinakis. Thus, he’ll aim to replicate that feat when the two-step on the court in their men’s doubles campaign.