Kyrgios: I love basketball not tennis
Monday, has been impressed with the way Murray has handled his coaching team following his split with Ivan Lendl. He appointed Amélie Mauresmo as his coach after last year’s French Open and kept faith in her even though it took the Scot until this year to start beating the top players again.
Jonas Bjorkman joined Murray’s entourage in April. The Swede has played an increasingly important role and will take full charge of Murray’s coaching after Wimbledon. Mauresmo is expecting her first baby in August and is unlikely to return to coaching duties before the end of the year.
“I credit him for sticking with Amélie when it was looking like a lot of people were questioning it,” McEnroe said. “If you were going to start something right before Wimbledon [like Andy did last year], it felt like it was asking way too much of someone with the pressure of being defend-
Amelie Mauresmo, coach of Britain's Andy Murray, watches him serve during a practice session earlier this year. US tennis legend John McEnroe has praised Murray for “sticking with Amelie” for his Wimbledon challenge this year. ing champion. I think it was very smart of him to give it some time.
“Bjorkman does some things well which can help Andy, like being aggressive off the return, which he is doing more of anyway, volleying, positioning of where you are at the net. Those are important.”
McEnroe thinks one of the only remaining areas for concern has been Murray’s second serve – he would like to see the Scot put more first serves in court – but in other respects he has been impressed by the World No 3’s improvement.
“I think overall he is 10 to 15 per cent better and that is a significant amount at his level,” he said. “He is definitely feeling better about himself than he has for a while.”
The American added: “He is doing almost everything he needs to do, though I think his hands are good enough that he should use his skills at the net more often. He is starting to make that bigger impact off the return which is smart because he and Novak [Djokovic] are the best. Because he has such sweet feel I think he should be at the net more. He’s a big guy but he doesn’t do that very often. That is the only thing I would tell him.”
There has been talk for the last couple of years of younger players breaking through to challenge the “Big Four” – Murray, Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal – but McEnroe believes it has become increasingly difficult to displace the men at the top.
“Roger is 33, soon to be 34, and he looks great, though it’s tough when you get older to play best-of-five,” McEnroe said. “Rafa has got some injury issues but I hope he’s got another couple of years.”
McEnroe sympathised with Djokovic at the French Open, where the World No 1, under enormous pressure, ultimately failed to claim the last trophy missing from his Grand Slam collection as he attempted to emulate Federer and Nadal by winning all four major titles.
“Join the crowd,” McEnroe smiled. “In a way I was always thinking: ‘How would I break in with [Jimmy] Connors and [Bjorn] Borg and be considered their equal?’ It was not easy to do that and when I sort of felt like I was on that level, it felt like an amazing accomplishment.
“I think Novak’s the same: he’s got these two guys who are arguably the two greatest guys ever, but he’s trying to be on an equal footing. And that’s a hell of a tough thing to do when they have 17 and 14 Grand Slams and Novak’s at eight.
“But he’s got a chance to be considered one of the all-time greats if he keeps this up and keeps anything remotely close to what he’s been doing. You’ve got to figure he’s going to [win] at least a dozen [Slams].”
McEnroe has been pleased by the emergence of a much younger group of players, headed by Nick Kyrgios, Borna Coric, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jack Sock, but thought it could be “a couple of years” before they started to challenge the Big Four on a regular basis.
“You have to have a good attitude and understand you are here for the long haul because these guys are extremely professional,” McEnroe said. “They are very well prepared. It is a lot tougher [these days]. They are like machines out there.”
McEnroe singled out Kyrgios as the best of the new wave. “I think he would be the guy I would pick who could go all the way,” McEnroe said. “He is close to being ready to make a big breakthrough.”
McEnroe believes that characters like Kyrgios and Kokkinakis could give the sport a bright future.”You’ve got to make the sport cool in a way.” – The Independent LONDON: It has been a fairly typical last two months for Nick Kyrgios. The 20-year-old Australian has beaten Roger Federer, played one of the shots of the year with a winning through-the-legs lob against Andy Murray at the French Open and talked about avoiding all tennis for a week, less than a fortnight before Wimbledon, after finding it “difficult to get myself engaged” when losing at Queen’s Club last week.
To cap it all, the World No 29 will start Wimbledon next week without a coach after sacking his fellow Australian Todd Larkham.
Whether Kyrgios is blasting cannonball serves, hitting outrageous shots, sporting his latest sharp haircut or tattoo or dazzling your eyes with kit as colourful as his on-court language, it is all but impossible to ignore the young man from Canberra
With Kyrgios, nevertheless, you sense that his tennis future might be in the balance, especially as he does not much care for tennis. He would much rather have been a professional basketball player. “I love basketball,” a relaxed Kyrgios said as he sat back in a chair at a players’ lounge.
“I don’t really like the sport of tennis that much. I don’t love it. It was crazy when I was 14. I was all for basketball and I made the decision to play tennis. I got pushed by my parents and to this day I can still say I don’t love the sport. It is just crazy how things go.”
He added: “It’s good when you’re out there on a tennis court. There’s nowhere to hide. It’s all you, tactically, physically, mentally. But I just love basketball, I love the sport. I always have.”
Might he have had a career in basketball? “I thought I was going to,” Kyrgios said. “I was trying to get there when I was 14 and every time when I’m playing now I still think I can for some odd reason, even though I’m playing a completely different sport. That’s just the way it is and unfortunately I think my basketball career has come to an end.”
Basketball’s loss is clearly a gain for tennis. With his bold attacking play, youthful tastes in fashion and free-spirited character, Kyrgios has the potential to become one of the sport’s biggest box-office attractions. – The Independent