Changed days for bad boy of tennis

Idon’t think anyone would have predicted that Nick Kyrgios would emerge from this coronavirus shutdown with his reputation enhanced! To describe the Australian tennis player as Marmite probably wouldn’t do it justice. I definitely wasn’t a member of his fan club.

There were too many on-court tantrums for my liking and, as someone who knows how much commitment you need to put in to get to the top of your sport, the number of times Kyrgios fell short in that regard didn’t sit well.

Too often it has felt like he’s wasting his natural talent.

But he’s definitely been on the right side of the argument recently.

The Novak Djokovic tournament was such a bad idea and it was no shock that several players and non-playing staff ended up with Covid-19 at it.

It was a huge misjudgment.

The pictures of the players partying in a nightclub will live long in the memory – and certainly not in a good way.

You can put it down to a collective mistake but a forgivable one given the good intentions.

But for one of the competitors who contracted the virus, Alexander Zverev, to then be pictured partying again a few days later is a whole different matter.

And Kyrgios was right to call him out for it.

Boris Becker should have thought better than try to turn the spotlight on Kyrgios for being a ‘rat’.

The ‘keep your opinions behind closed-doors’ mantra is a nice idea but sometimes you need to go public if you believe in something strongly enough. This is one of those times.

Nobody should need to be reminded about how dangerous this virus is and taking a chance with other people’s health is a serious issue.

Kyrgios had every right to be furious. When this is all over I think some athletes will be shocked by the public reaction to them when there are full venues again. Djokovic will probably be one of them and Zverev definitely will.

And, who’d have thought it, the bad boy of tennis could end up being a Centre Court favourite.

Guard of honour

There are times when you have to smile through gritted teeth in sport and applaud when it’s the last thing you want to be doing.

Standing on the podium with a bronze or silver medal round your neck when you feel like it should have been gold is the best example I can think of.

A guard of honour for the new champions is a football tradition and it’s right that the likes of Liverpool get the respect they deserve from their peers.

Just don’t ask us curlers to start doing it with our brooms!

Battle of Brits success

The Battle of the Brits in tennis has gone well and the mini ladies golf tour in Britain was another great idea.

I’d love to see something happen in curling.

Let’s face it, nobody knows whether we’ll be able to get out to Canada when the season gets started so you can see an opportunity for Scotland to host a new event.

The Europeans in November will be the first big goal and all the top teams will need to find competitions, even if they’re behind closed doors, to get us ready for Lillehammer.

Why not over here?

Nick Kyrgios will emerge from lockdown with his reputation enhanced after his comments.