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Nick Kyrgios has pulled out of a match-up with Andy Murray at the US Open warm-up event in North Carolina, with a left knee injury cited for his withdrawal.
With the US Open just a week away, Nick Kyrgios has withdrawn from the grand slam's final warm-up event just minutes before he was due to take on Andy Murray in North Carolina.
With the crowd in their seats for the highly-anticipated first-round match at the Winston-Salem Open, an announcement was made that Kyrgios would not be playing with the ATP Tour citing a left knee injury.
Kyrgios, who has slumped to world No.84, has won just one match since making the round of 32 at Wimbledon in June on his return to the tour after a four-month absence.
He was forced to pull out midway through his third round match at the All England Club against Felix Auger-Aliassime with an abdominal injury, and elected to skip the Tokyo Olympics because playing without spectators "doesn't feel right".
The match against his good friend Murray was a chance for Kyrgios to end a three-match losing streak - after defeats to Cameron Norrie in Atlanta, Mackenzie McDonald in Washington and Reilly Opelka in Toronto.
Instead, former world No.1 Murray cruised past lucky loser Noah Rubin 6-2 6-0 in less than an hour.
American Rubin stepped in on short notice, having lost a three-set qualifying match to Lucas Pouille less than an hour earlier.
"Originally I was playing Nick and he had an injury to his knee so wasn't going to play," Murray said in his on-court interview.
"I didn't know if I was going to play tonight.
"They said if I was playing against a qualifier then I wouldn't play and then I drew a lucky loser ... so then I was playing Noah ... It was tricky.
"It was obviously difficult for 45 minutes and then the first couple of games because you've gone over a strategy with your coach about the match you're going to play and then obviously that changes."
Murray, a wildcard in the tournament, will face 13th seeded Frances Tiafoe in the second round.
Australian James Duckworth failed to progress, going down to Brazilian Thiago Monteiro 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7-5) in a tussle that went beyond two-and-a-half hours.
with PA
