NO END TO KYRGIOS ‘DRAMAS’

NEIL McLEMAN

BY

NICK KYRGIOS’ final training session before his Wimbledon quarter-final today was filmed by a Netflix crew.

They were making the new tennis series, ‘Drive to Survive’. And as the Aussie (above) walked past a posse of cameras and reporters at the Aorangi Park practice grounds, he murmured to a member of his entourage: “I feel like I’m in ‘The Last Dance’.”

That is in reference to another Netflix docuseries, one that charted the final season of NBA legend Michael Jordan. But really Kyrgios’s whole career – and even this Wimbledon – has been one drama after another.

And the build-up to the latest instalment – his biggest match for more than seven years on Court No.1 today – has been overshadowed by news he faces a court case in Canberra for allegedly assaulting a former girlfriend, in December last year.

The case, which carries a maximum jail sentence of two years, relates to an allegation Kyrgios grabbed former partner, Chiara Passari.

He will appear at the Australia Capital Territory (ACT) Magistrates’ Court at 9.30am on August 2.

Perhaps no other star in history has attracted the headlines of Kyrgios in relation to his actual sporting achievements.

His highest ranking is No.13 and today he will play Chile’s world No.43, Cristian Garin (inset), in his latest bid to reach a first Grand Slam semi-final.

Kyrgios reached his first Major quarter-final by beating then world No.1 Rafa Nadal on his Wimbledon debut in 2014, and has never gone further. He last got to this stage of a Major at 2015’s Australian Open.

At the age of 27, he finally seemed ready to fulfil his undoubted ability. Today will show if his greatest talent is for self-destruction.