Kyrgios after loss: ‘I’m not dedicated to the game at all’
There is absolutely no denying that Nick Kyrgios is a wildly talented tennis player, but he’s also a flawed individual who doesn’t understand where he belongs in the grand scheme of the sport.
Unfortunately, the person most confounded by the conundrum that is Nick Kyrgios is Kyrgios himself.
After No. 14 seed Kyrgios suffered a disheartening 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 first-round defeat to fellow Australian John Millman in the U.S. Open on Wednesday, he again revealed his multifaceted perplexing personality.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed I lost today,” Kyrgios said, then changed gears. “It’s not the end of the world. I will get over it in probably a half-hour.”
It’s difficult to ever know how Kyrgios, 22, will present; what he will say, how he’ll react. Often, as he showed in his postmatch news conference, he offers a smorgasbord of emotions. Within a 10-minute or so span, Kyrgios was insolent, immature, compassionate and confused.
The floodgates really opened when Kyrgios was asked whether his coaching relationship with Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, a four-time Grand Slam tournament semifinalist based in South Florida, will continue after their original agreement to work through this U.S. Open.
“I don’t know, honestly,” Kyrgios said. “I’m not good enough for him. He’s very dedicated. He’s an unbelievable coach. He probably deserves a player that is probably more dedicated to the game than I am. He deserves a better athlete than me.
“I’m not dedicated to the game at all. He’s helped me a lot, especially with the training . ... There are players out there that are more dedicated, that want to get better, that strive to get better every day, the one-percenters. I’m not that guy,” he added, bowing his head.
The match against Millman was another mixed bag for Kyrgios, which is about the way his year can be described.
He served 17 aces despite a shoulder problem that surfaced early in the third set for which he received medical treatment on court. “My arm felt numb,” he said. “What else do you want me to say? My arm is not broken, but it was sore.”
On the downside, there were the 60 unforced errors, the four breaks of serve on the 14 break points he presented Millman and the general frustration.
Kyrgios received a warning for an audible obscenity, which was reported to umpire Carlos Ramos from a linesperson. Ramos admitted not to hearing what Kyrgios said — a later look on TV showed him uttering the curse — and the Australian argued he hadn’t said anything wrong.
Then, after losing the third set, Kyrgios smashed his racket, which resulted in a point penalty and enabled Millman to start serving the fourth set at 15-0. Interestingly, after the match was over, Kyrgios was intent on taking the mangled racket with him and had to ask a ball boy what happened to it as it had disappeared from his courtside chair. Once retrieved, he attempted to zip it into his gear bag but it no longer would fit, so he just carried it off in his hand.
At the Grand Slams this year, Kyrgios fell in the second round in the Australian and French Open and now the first round in Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
The Kyrgios conclusion for now is that despite possessing the kind of brilliance that could easily lead him to the No. 1 ranking, getting there seems well beyond his current capabilities.
The tennis world, however, will continue to hope he can find an inner peace, because his talent could produce incredible tennis memories.