Nick Kyrgios labelled Andy Murray's struggles against bogey opponent Alex de Minaur "crazy" after the Australian ended the Scotsman's hopes of being seeded for Wimbledon at Queen's. The 24-year-old swatted aside Murray in straight sets in a 6-3 6-1 triumph to also shatter the two-time Wimbledon champion's stunning 10-match winning streak on British grass courts.
Murray arrived at Queen's in desperate need of success if he was to seal a seeded spot at SW19 but now the 36-year-old has been left to lick his wounds.
De Minaur appears to have his number having now won all four of his meetings with Murray, something that Kyrgios was keen to point out on his Twitter account.
The Aussie wrote: "Muzz doesn't like playing demon at all, crazy."
The world No 18 was handed a walkover in the quarter-finals of The Washington Open back in 2018 after Murray was forced to withdraw from their first ever potential meeting.
Yet even when the pair have collided - there has only been one result to date.
De Minaur has picked up victories at Zhuhai in China, the Laver Cup, Monte Carlo and now Queen's as he continues to inflict misery on his elder opponent.
He will now square off with Argentina's Diego Schwartzman for a place in the quarter-finals.
Murray was keen to pay tribute to De Minaur's quality and knows there is no shame in losing to the Aussie.
"I don't want to overanalyse," said Murray after winning titles in Surbiton and Nottingham prior to the tournament.
"It's easy to overreact. I lost to a good player."
He later added on his recent form on grass courts: "It's obviously not the same level of opponents, but I won Nottingham last week without dropping a set. I only lost one set in Surbiton.
"I was holding serve very comfortably, moving well, hitting the ball good. There are a lot of positive signs there."
Murray realistically needed to reach at least the quarter-finals at Queen's to stand a chance of being seeded for Wimbledon.
The official seeding takes place on July 3 but it will now be disappointment for Murray despite his recent achievements.
The Scotsman has made no secret of the fact he has been strongly targeting a seeded place for Wimbledon by breaking into the top 32 players in the world rankings.
Now he will be faced with a difficult draw as he attempts to write new history at SW19.