Nick Kyrgios complains of marijuana smell during US Open second round win
On Sunday, with John Isner and Stan Wawrinka out of his reach at the top of the draw at Flushing Meadows, Kyrgios faced a new opponent, a young Spaniard who said he’d smoked a little of a weed on the plane from Madrid following the US Open final, according to the report the player gave during his post-match press conference.
His name is Fernando Verdasco, a 17-year-old who took bronze at the London Olympics last summer with a 15th-seed team that finished dead last, and he was already world No. 100 when he made the switch to Flushing Meadows.
“I smoked a joint the other day at the airport in Madrid, just out of the blue, and I’m sure it’s the same stuff as here,” he said. “I just smoked weed.”
His coach, Jose Maria Olazábal, declined comment, and the tournament’s Twitter account was as silent as they get in this day and age, which is why it was left to the player himself to complain to the media.
According to ESPN’s tournament reporter Mark Rolfing, Kyrgios told reporters that he didn’t know what to make of it: What exactly does it mean that he was smoking marijuana after what felt like a major championship final?
At a tournament where marijuana use is now a topic of discussion and concern for every tournament official, including the tournament host himself, and at a tournament where the competition was so close most of the players would be playing for a bronze medal (at least one player had to play in straight sets), where was he supposed to know that marijuana is a risk factor?
“My teammate from Spain has a similar story. He was stoned in the locker, so he was coughing too,” he said. “I told him to smoke less.
“But he said, ‘