Winning crowd over
Kyrgios confident of bringing back success
NICK Kyrgios is confident the Brisbane International’s crowds will get behind him at his debut at the tournament if he can give them success.
The polarising Kyrgios was booed from court by a significant part of a Melbourne Park crowd at his most recent Australian tournament, after his second round loss to Italian Andreas Seppi, admitting that it was “not the greatest thing”.
Kyrgios picked up two code violations – for an audible obscenity and racquet abuse in a match which followed an unwelcome pattern of him having become worn down emotionally and physically over five sets at Grand Slam level.
The supportive reactions towards the Australian No.1 in his two wins at Brisbane’s Pat Rafter Arena at the Davis Cup tie against the United States three months later was noticeable.
“I know if I win I will probably have a good crowd,” Kyrgios said this week during practice in Brisbane before a short break in Canberra.
“It’s good to come back to Brisbane – I had good memories here from Davis Cup.
“I’ve done off seasons here (the Queensland Tennis Centre) a couple of times. I feel comfortable here.”
Kyrgios, 22, went into the 2017 Australian Open with a deterioration of a knee injury suffered in off-season basketball sessions and the world No.21 said he learnt from the experience that basketball “isn’t great for my body”.
Anyone doubting how much the prospective fourth seed for the Brisbane International sometimes cares about his tennis might have changed their mind this week when he spoke about his two wins over 12-time major winner Djokovic this year.
“The Indian Wells win (in March) after I beat him in Acapulco, people were saying it was a fluke. I saw him in the draw (in Indian Wells) and though, ‘well, I’m going to do it again’,” Kyrgios said.