Fourteen-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal has rubbished reports that he refused to play doubles with Nick Kyrgios in a charity event.
The Spaniard was invited to take part in an exhibition event organised by John McEnroe's Tennis Academy in New York ahead of the US Open.
There were reports that Nadal refused to be teamed up with Kyrgios following the Australian's controversial remarks about Stanislas Wawrinka's girlfriend during a Rogers Cup match earlier this month.
However, Nadal, who will go up against 18-year-old Croatian Borna Coric in the first round at Flushing Meadows, has rejected the rumours.
"I was never supposed to play a doubles match," the Daily Mail quotes Nadal as saying. "First, I was only supposed to play singles in the exhibition so that [article] was wrong information.
"Second, I never knew I had to play against Kyrgios. I was told I was going to play Lleyton Hewitt. No one asked me to play doubles with Nick Kyrgios.
"I was only asked to play a singles match - since Roland Garros I knew that. This story I was supposed to play a doubles match - I don't know where that story comes from."
Kyrgios will face 2012 US Open champion Andy Murray in the first round this week.
Danielle Joynson
