WASHINGTON — One of the most anticipated doubles pairings of the Mubadala DC Open tennis tournament won’t happen.
Nick Kyrgios and Frances Tiafoe withdrew Tuesday after the latter suffered a right wrist injury. The pair was slated to play Francisco Cabral and JJ Tracy in their first-round match Tuesday night. Lucky losers Ariel Behar and Anirudh Chandrasekar will take the duo’s place.
Kyrgios and Tiafoe previously teamed up at the DC Open in 2021, when they lost in the second round to Jannik Sinner and Sebastian Korda. Kyrgios has won the tournament twice in singles in 2019 and 2022, also capturing a doubles title with Jack Sock in 2022.
Tiafoe hasn’t won the DC Open in any form, making this an especially disappointing development for the bevy of fans he has at the tournament. The 28-year-old — a Hyattsville native and product of the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park — surprisingly lost as the No. 6 seed in singles to unseeded Terence Atmane in three sets on Monday night.
“Very disappointing. Especially for the year that I’ve been having, super disappointing,” Tiafoe said Monday. “Honestly, that’s all I can really say. I had a lot of high hopes. Yeah, this one hurts a lot.”
Tiafoe previously dealt with a lower back injury before Wimbledon in June, while Kyrgios has been mired in injuries over recent years, including a wrist ailment that required reconstruction surgery in 2023.
The DC Open looked like it would provide an opportunity for them to partner up for the first time in years and provide entertainment in the nation’s capital. Instead, the partnership ended before it ever had a chance.
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