Alexander Zverev took out his full frustration on his racquet during an explosive exit from the Australian Open, the German's latest grand slam flop.
The world No.4 was trounced 6-1 6-1 7-6 (7-5) by big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic in the Australian Open fourth round on Monday.
Zverev flew off the rails in the second set, smashing his racquet nine times after serving three double faults to go down 4-1.
"It made me feel better. I was very angry, so I let my anger out," the 21-year-old, who served 10 double faults for the match, said.
The prodigiously talented Zverev has ten career titles and beat top guns Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Marin Cilic at the prestigious ATP finals to end 2018.
But he's yet to bring that form to a major and has only made the quarter-finals once in 15 grand slams, the French Open last year.
Zverev broke serve in the opening game but from there fell to pieces as he surrendered the first two sets in a little over an hour.
He stirred late, saving two match points down 5-4 in the third set but Raonic upped his game to close out the tiebreak.
"I'm not playing well, but obviously tried," Zverev said.
"In the third set I started to play a little bit better but, you know, it was a little bit too late already.
"I have been struggling with my second serve the whole week."
Zverev admitted he had a shorter-than-ideal off season after ATP finals success in London but bluntly denied he had any injury troubles in the first two sets.
Cool and collected, Raonic wasn't fazed by his opponent's mid-match blow up
"I heard it. I don't think I looked over. I think it was pretty clear what was going on," the 16th seed said.
Raonic adds the Melbourne Park scalp of Zverev to those of Nick Kyrgios and Stan Wawrinka and will next meet 28th seed Lucas Pouille for a place in the final four.
"Right now I'm here playing some extremely good tennis I believe. Hopefully I can make that count," the 2016 Wimbledon finalist said.
