Kyrgios making noise with words as well as with tennis
MUMBAI : “Like I sit here now in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon again,” Nick Kyrgios says, fiddling with his left earring, under a bright red cap, “and I just know there are so many people that are so upset.” He smiles. “It’s just…it’s a good feeling.”
Kyrgios is a maverick in its most authentic form. Kyrgios is a showman that attracts eyeballs and headlines in equal measure. Kyrgios is a rival that even the greatest dread seeing on the other side of the net. And when he is in the mood, Kyrgios is a pretty good tennis player.
In all the shenanigans that accompany the collective Kyrgios circus on a tennis court, that bit often gets reduced to a sideshow.
At this Wimbledon though, his tennis is finally making as much noise as his words, and although it ain’t music to the ears of the sport’s traditionalists, the Australian will bid for a maiden singles Grand Slam semi-final—where Rafael Nadal would potentially loom—on Wednesday.
It will be his first Slam quarter-final in seven years, and the first at the All England Club since a 19-year-old baby-faced wild card downed the then world No 1 Nadal in the fourth round.
His tennis was shock and awe in that Wimbledon. His tennis is shock and awe in this Wimbledon. Like Kyrgios put it after his second-round win over Filip Krajinovic, “I just wanted to remind everyone that I’m pretty good”.
Let’s remind ourselves of the Kyrgios- Stefanos Tsitsipas third-round match at the weekend. You’d perhaps still have the image in your mind of Kyrgios chattering away incessantly, being warned for being foulmouthed, giving the chair umpire an earful for not defaulting Tsitsipas for hitting a ball into the crowd that hit a fan.
But do you remember that whipping forehand slapped cross-court to a scrambling Tsitsipas the point after he received a code violation for audible obscenity in the second set, or the serve-and-volley winner scooped from just above the ankle across the net to win the third?
That’s Kyrgios when his tennis does the talking—dangerous, deceptive and dynamic. He has served 103 aces in the four matches so far, the second most at this Wimbledon after the ace of aces, John Isner.
He has the joint-second fastest serve in the tournament (137 mph) and a highly impressive first serve percentage of 70. He has fired 67, 50, 61 and 79 winners so far, leading each of his opponents quite comfortably in that count during their matches.
His serves come and go in catch-me-if-you-can speed; his forehand can generate power seemingly out of nowhere; he can flatten the ball like Jonny Bairstow does to bowling attacks; he can drop them craftily like Roger Federer forever. Sure, it doesn’t all come together consistently and it can often get a bit too erratic, but when it does— like it has for large periods this Wimbledon— it is a sight to behold.
“People just don’t give me the respect sometimes because of other things that I do,” Kyrgios said last week.
He largely has himself to blame for that. Krygios loves playing the crowd, riling the opponent and creating chaos on the court.
While it may impact someone like Tsitsipas, it has also been the crux of Kyrgios activating his own self-destruction mode. What else can explain a player described by John McEnroe as “the most talented” he had seen in the past 10 years not entering a Slam semi-final yet and win all of six ATP titles in his near decade-long professional career?
Krygios said his five-set contest against Brandon Nakashima on Tuesday was the first time in his career he actually enjoyed being in a battle.
“I was almost just smiling and laughing to myself on the far side, knowing that I was locked in an absolute battle. In the past I wasn’t able to enjoy that ... I was almost enjoying the competitiveness (vs Nakashima).”