Nick Kyrgios has been accused of undermining Alex de Minaur’s stunning win over Novak Djokovic at the United Cup, after slamming the ATP’s ball rules. Djokovic complained of a wrist injury in his 6-4, 6-4 loss, allowing Australia to defeat Serbia and progress to the tournament’s semi-finals. While the injury is unlikely to jeopardize the ten-time champion’s participation in the upcoming Australian Open, it is an unwelcome distraction less than two weeks out from the year’s first grand slam, especially paired with his first loss on these shores in nearly six years. Kyrgios took to X to address the ATP’s inconsistent ball rules, blaming them for Djokovic’s injury. The 28-year-old, who will miss the Australian Open due to a wrist injury, said the ATP ‘really need to do something about this problem’. However, Kyrgios was accused of diverting attention away from de Minaur’s performance in favor of excusing Djokovic. Kyrgios returned shortly after to defend his comments, describing detractors as ‘noobs’ and those dismissive of the ball problems as ‘potatoes’. De Minaur’s upset win ends Djokovic’s remarkable 43-match winning streak in Australia, with a host of tennis greats praising the 24-year-old’s play. “The way he was able to dominate in the serve was jaw-dropping,” former Australian Open champion Jim Courier said on Nine. “To keep Novak off balance with drop shots and slices and topspin lobs and looping shots…. he just didn’t give Novak any rhythm and Novak responded with a lot of unforced errors. He was frustrated, there’s no doubt about it. “A little bit injured, it seems – [but] not enough to affect the speed of his shots. This was a well-earned big time victory for the Demon.” Team Australia will head to Sydney to await the winner of Greece and Germany in Saturday night’s semi-final.