Kyrgios and Nadal in grudge match
Australian Open
LONG before he set up what should be a pulsating fourth round against Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open, Nick Kyrgios had already commenced hostilities.
During his second-round match on Thursday he mimicked the world No 1’s idiosyncratic routines — including fiddling with his underwear — and when word got back to Nadal he was not impressed.
In a rather refreshing shift from the corporate bonhomie that often marks relationships in men’s tennis, the two men do not get along.
That much was evident to anyone who saw their match at Wimbledon last summer, where Nadal won in four sets. A Kyrgios collectors’ item was that he had spent the evening before in a local hostelry enjoying a few drinks.
That is unlikely to happen this time when they clash on the Australia Day bank holiday.
Kyrgios will need all the recovery time he can get after taking four hours and 26 minutes to squeeze past Russia’s Karen Khachanov.
It was his longest-ever match, a thriller that he clinched 6-2, 7-6, 6-7, 6-7,7-6 when he nicked the sudden-death tiebreak 10-8.
The acclaim was deafening, recognition that Kyrgios’s stock here has risen this month, thanks to him taking a lead in fundraising efforts for the victims of bushfires.
This show of maturity may not be unrelated to the fact he has started winning plenty of matches, and he is the last Aussie man standing.
When Queenslander John Millman faced Roger Federer on Friday, the Rod Laver Arena almost felt like a corner of Switzerland.
One can assuredly say it will not feel like Mallorca for Nadal when their fourth-round clash begins.
‘I have never hung out with him,’ said Kyrgios, who has previously accused Nadal of being a ‘salty’ loser. ‘If we don’t like each other there is still a layer of respect. He’s a hell of a tennis player.’
The Spaniard, like Federer, is used to being shown deference by his fellow players, and the Australian is disdainful of lip service.
It has served the uber-talented Kyrgios perfectly well, and he has a decent 3-4 record in the head to head against his next opponent.
After cruising past his compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta, Nadal reacted fairly diplomatic ally to the prospect of his next opponent.
‘I don’t know him personally, to have a clear opinion,’ he said.
‘When he does stuff that in my opinion is not good, I don’t like it. When he plays good tennis and he shows passion for this game, he is a positive player for our tour.’
Kyrgios has previously been criticised for his lack of fitness and his self-admitted reluctance to train.
He came through yesterday’s test surprisingly strongly but the toll it will have taken makes Nadal the clear favourite.
‘My legs feel like they weigh an extra 40 pounds,’ said Kyrgios after finishing off Khachanov.
One thing that does not change is the fact that Kyrgios is pure box office, with his combination of outrageous shotmaking and the danger he is going to blow his stack or do something irrational.
He actually exuded what was, for him, a relative calm against Khachanov, at least until the ninth game of the fourth set, when he exploded at the time violation given by umpire Renaud Lichtenstein.
The man in the chair had failed to notice that his knuckles were badly bleeding, and that he was slightly delayed by not wanting to hand the ball-kid his towel.
By then Kyrgios had missed a match point in the second tiebreak, and he was to squander another in the third, facing the thunderous serve of the brave Khachanov.
At 7-8 down in the final-set tie break another near miss beckoned, but a brilliant backhand down the line turned it round and he won the last three points.
Britain’s leading partnership Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski made a disappointing exit from the second round of the doubles when they lost 14-12 in a sudden-death tiebreak to go down 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 to Americans Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey.