By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) - Australian trailblazer Nick Kyrgios lasted just 49 minutes against Stanislas Wawrinka at Queen's Club on Tuesday before saying he wanted to forget all about tennis in the run-up to Wimbledon.
"Probably going to stay in my house for a couple of days and sleep, play computer games and chill out," the 20-year-old told reporters after losing 6-3 6-4 on his debut at the Aegon Championships, the traditional pre-Wimbledon warm-up event.
"Just not think about tennis, turn off all tennis channels, delete my ATP app and just not think about tennis for a week."
It was all a far cry from 12 months ago when he blew Rafa Nadal off court at Wimbledon and reached the quarter-finals on his debut at the grasscourt grand slam.
Sporting a bleached white stripe on the side of his head, Kyrgios served up the odd missile but looked distracted as he was easily beaten by the French Open champion.
At times he looked as though he was going through the motions and after Wawrinka sealed victory with an ace, Kyrgios was off court in a flash and was in the media interview room minutes later, clearly in a hurry to leave.
He said he had not been feeling well since the French Open where he lost to Andy Murray in the third round.
Last week Kyrgios was forced to pull out of the Den Bosch grasscourt event in the Netherlands with an elbow injury and, despite the Australian-like sunshine on Tuesday, he looked as though he would rather have been somewhere else.
"I just felt uncomfortable the whole time, not feeling great," the world number 28 said. "I almost found it difficult to get myself engaged and didn't want to be there."
A friend from home will fly in soon and his father will arrive for Wimbledon, Kyrgios added before admitting the long stretch of European tennis was proving difficult.
"I have been battling mentally a bit," he said. "We will see how it goes. It's tough at the moment."
Despite the gloomy outlook Kyrgios believes he can make a big impression at Wimbledon where his dream run was ended last year by Canada's Milos Raonic.
"I feel confident still. I know I could do some good things there and I know I don't necessarily need too many matches before grand slams," he said.
"I just need to chill out for a couple of days... I'm pretty tired."