Nick Kyrgios has admitted he is struggling mentally and physically after a third injury retirement in as many tournaments put his US Open campaign under a cloud.
Fans booed the 22-year-old Australian off the court after he pulled out of his second-round Washington Open clash on Wednesday, his first match of the US hardcourt season.
Kyrgios was down 6-3 3-0 to American world No.106 Tennys Sandgren when he retired with a shoulder problem.
He eventually told the trainer: "I'm done, I'm done."
"My shoulder kind of just came on today, I hadn't been feeling it," The Washington Post quoted Kyrgios as saying.
"And my hip has been fine. I've been very cautious with it, I haven't been training enough, at all, to play a tournament like this."
It was Kyrgios' first outing since retiring less than an hour into his Wimbledon first-round match due to a chronic hip injury.
He also pulled out midway through his Queen's Club opening-round clash in June when he fell and aggravated his hip problem.
"I just wanted to see how it goes, but obviously I'm far from ready... I just hadn't hit enough balls," Kyrgios said.
"I don't know, obviously the match intensity is different in practice but my shoulder's a little bit sore."
The world No.20 faces a race against the clock to be fit for the US Open, starting on August 29, with Australia's Davis Cup semi-final against Belgium played on September 15-17.
It's not just his body which is letting him down, Kyrgios also blamed mental problems for hampering his preparation.
"Just in general. It's not motivation, just off-court issues, I guess," he said.
Kyrgios's latest withdrawal comes after fellow troubled star Bernard Tomic admitted he had lost motivation for the game following his Wimbledon meltdown.
But it's not all doom and gloom for Australian tennis, with Australian comeback star Thanasi Kokkinakis reaching the quarter-finals of the Los Cabos Open in Mexico on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old will face the winner of world No.23 Albert Ramos Vinolas's clash with Taylor Fritz.
Earlier in Washington, Kyrgios's Davis Cup teammate Jordan Thompson came frustratingly close to upsetting world No.8 Alexander Zverev in the second round.
The 23-year-old Thompson lost 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-5), leading the third-set tiebreaker 5-4 before conceding the final three points of the match.
Meanwhile, Australians Matthew Ebden and Marc Polmans were both knocked out in straight sets.
Ebden lost to fourth seed Feliciano Lopez 6-4 6-4, while Polman was beaten by American world No. 69 Jared Donaldson 6-2 6-3.
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