Kyrgios’ act is played out
There comes a time when brash turns into trash.
Notorious bad boy Nick Kyrgios is well past it.
The wild child of Australian tennis took a deep dumpsterdive during his first round match at the Rogers Cup against Stan Wawrinka on Tuesday afternoon – now there was a tank – and his afterwards utterly disengaged but mandatory session with reporters.
A huge yawn, an eye-roll, grimaces, a series of curt answers. To wit: Q: “You wrote just before Wimbledon started…of having been away from the tour for a while with injuries, it made you appreciate playing tennis a little bit more and given you more motivation. Do you still feel that way or has that changed at all? A: “No.” At 23, the cocky Canberran is no longer a kid. He’s merely a snotty punk. A few years ago that was almost endearing, certainly refreshing, roiling the rather stiff-necked sport at which he naturally excelled, in the passive post-McEnroe era of gentlemen and ladies. Kyrgios often played with the audience as much as he did his opponents, even soliciting shot suggestions.
The saucy fresh blood was appreciated and fans flocked to his scrappy matches.
On his best of days — less frequent and longer between — Kyrgios can still entertain hugely. His serve is a scythe, his instinctive athleticism impressive. This was one of those days, for a while at least as Kyrgios shot away to a dominant 6-1 first set, displaying wickedly quick groundstrokes, generating awesome forehand power with the flick of a wrist, showing off tweeners and slap shot winners.
Then again, after dropping the middle frame 7-5 — unwilling to chase down balls in the open court — when, almost in spite of himself, the 16th seed worked out of various jams, forestalling break of serve at 5-6 with an ace — his 26th — but wasting it with a pair of wild errors, all focus vanishing and, on match point, a limp swipe into the net.
Like he just wanted to get off the court, lam it.
There was a medical time-out in the second set, as Kyrgios received treatment for a sore hip, presumably the same injury that forced him to withdrawn from the City Open in Washington D.C. last week.
Except one never knows for sure with our mate, Nick. Certainly he’s been accused of feigning injury before and deliberately tanking; has even copped to the latter, rationalizing it away as “strategy” — why bother playing hard when training badly when there’s always another tournament around the corner?
Wawrinka, the former world No. 3, is among those who has voiced suspicion of Kyrgios’ purported injuries in the past. In fact, that was the dis-y background — if Kyrgios’ mom can be believed — to a memorable hot mic slag the Australian laid on the Swiss player three years ago at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Kyrgios rattled Wawrinka’s chain by yelling that Thanasi Kokkinakis, a close Aussie buddy, had “banged your girlfriend,” this apparently a reference to Croatian then-teenager Donna Vekic, whom Wawrinka had taken up with after his divorce.
“Sorry to tell you that mate,” Kyrgios added.
Wawrinka was, understandably, not amused. “He’s young, but that’s no excuse … every match, he behaves very badly. The problem is he doesn’t just behave badly towards himself, he behaves badly towards the people and the other players, the ball kids, the umpires.’’
On that occasion, Kyrgios was booed when he walked onto the court for his subsequent match, wherein he was knocked out by John Isner.
Nobody waved a fond goodbye and Kyrgios was fined $10,000 by the tennis politburo for his slut-shaming remarks.
Vekic was in the stands, yesterday, by the way, cheering on her man.
Since then, although genuinely plagued by injuries, the Kyrgios braggadocio has worn thin. His antics have become tedious, whether castigating an umpire as “dirty scum!” or banging his racquet so forcefully in self-disgust that it once bounced right into the crowd.
The rebel seems very much without a cause, with Kyrgios professing that he doesn’t actually much like tennis, despite career earnings of more than $6 million, four tour titles and twice reaching the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam. So much more had been expected, however.
“My hip is, obviously, a little bit sore,” he explained after Tuesday’s elimination, with an exaggerated sigh, as if so stupid to be asked.
“That’s why I called the trainer on the court. So it’s pretty self-explanatory.’’
Any plan going forward, to manage the hip issue, leading into the US Open? “I don’t know.” Anything positive to take away from this match? “I have no positives.” Was notably gracious towards Wawrinka, though, as if there’s no ill-will between the two.
“For him to get through matches like this, healthy, no pain, that’s a good sign for him. He’s playing a good level. He’s got a world-class backhand and matches like this are going to give him confidence.”
It’s been a brutal year for the 33-year-old with three Slam titles on his resume. He underwent surgery twice last summer to repair cartilage damage on his left knee, was knocked out in the first round of the French Open, bowed out in the second round at Wimbledon and made a quick exit in Washington a week ago, losing to 234th-ranked American Donald Young.
A 6-11 record for 2018 has plunged Wawrinka to a No. 195 ranking and was gifted a wild card for Toronto after Andy Murray withdrew. But he looked poised and strong against Kyrgios, especially rallying from that first set stagger, aggressive on his first serve and recovering from ill-time double faults.
“It was a tough match, as expected. It’s never easy to play against him. He can serve big. Games can go really quickly on his side. He doesn’t give you much freedom.
“After the first set I started moving better, being more aggressive on my serve, having those little steps inside the court a bit better.’’ Little steps and no scraps. As for Kyrgios, we haven’t seen the last of him at Rogers Cup. He still intends to play doubles with partner Ivan Dodig.
Ah, we’re not worthy. Mate.