Kyrgios cracker
Tennis bad boy wins thriller – next up, Nadal!
The rehabilitation of Nick Kyrgios is proceeding apace at the Australian Open, turning a man who used to be a national embarrassment into a national treasure. As he prepares for tomorrow’s grudge match with Rafael Nadal, Kyrgios will have the Australian public behind him as never before.
It is now just over three weeks since Kyrgios surprised many of his critics – and they were legion – by speaking up in support of the country’s bushfire relief. For the first time, people saw that there was a lot more to him than just a tantrum in sneakers.
But there were still plenty of questions about his lack of sporting backbone. When he played poorly against Spain in the semi-final of the ATP Cup, The Australian newspaper ran the headline “Why Nick Kyrgios is a sook” – a vivid piece of local slang which essentially translates to “quitter”.
This is why yesterday’s third-round victory over the Russian player Karen Khachanov could prove to be a turning point in Kyrgios’s chequered history.
In a 4 hr 26 min masterpiece of a match, Kyrgios took a two-set lead, but was then forced to go the long way round as he edged past Khachanov by the tightest of scorelines: 6-2, 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 7-6.
The downside of such a featurelength encounter is that Kyrgios is unlikely to be in mint condition for tomorrow night, after a struggle that left his legs feeling “like 40 kilos each”. But how far he goes in this one tournament is not the point. What matters is the way he refused to give yesterday’s match away.
Had he wanted to capitulate, there were plenty of excuses to choose from.
For one thing, this was comfortably the longest that he had ever spent on court, by more than half an hour. For another, Khachanov was applying heat from the other end, even managing to challenge him on speed of serve. On top of all that, he sustained a couple of minor injuries: an early tweak to what he called his “left bum cheek”, which necessitated a medical timeout, and a skinned knuckle that stemmed from a Becker-esque dive.
Kyrgios’s bleeding hand prompted an angry exchange with umpire Renaud Lichtenstein, who gave him a time violation as he went to stash his bloodstained towel in a safe place. It is unusual, in Kyrgios’s ongoing war against officialdom, for him to be so clearly wronged.
Somehow, though, he kept his ranting reasonably clean and lucid – by his own dubious standards – and managed to avoid any further penalties. At other times, we saw many of the tropes that make Kyrgios irresistible viewing. He hit an underarm serve and at least four tweeners (shots played from between his legs), including two on the same point. Such circus tricks leave the fans agog, but there is a danger that they wind up his opponent. Nobody wants to lose to a man who does not seem to be trying his hardest.
The counterargument is that Kyrgios – a man with a short attention span – needs to keep himself entertained during the longueurs of a five-set match. He simply plays better after showing off a few of his party pieces. And to put the frills and flounces into perspective, this match featured 376 points, of which only six turned daft.
To his credit, Kyrgios stayed with Khachanov to the end, producing not only some of the most exquisite halfvolleys you have ever seen, but also a series of flat backhand winners that would have gratified Andy Murray. His final statistics show that he hit 33 aces – which will add up to another A$6,600 (£3,447) for bushfire relief – among an extraordinary tally of 97 winners in all.
More of this heavenly tennis ten will be required against Nadal, who made such contrastingly short work of compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta that he lost just seven games.
The matchup feels like a juicy one because of the long and contentious history between these two.
The Kyrgios story began in earnest with his breakout win over Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014, when he was 19. But the rivalry developed a bitter edge last year after he deployed an underarm serve during an equally memorable meeting in Acapulco. After Kyrgios had won that one too, Nadal harrumphed that he “lacks respect for the public, the rival and towards himself ”. Kyrgios responded with a social media post showing a shark’s bite and saying that he could “smell the blood when I play this dude”.
To add further spice to the saga, the two men came face to face again in the second round of last summer’s Wimbledon. A highly motivated Nadal pulled out a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 victory despite Kyrgios hitting him in the chest with a “Bodyline” forehand. Even last week, the beef was still running, as Kyrgios responded to a time violation with a pointed imitation of Nadal’s wedgie-plucking pre-serve routine.
“At Wimbledon [last year], I got beaten by the better player,” said Kyrgios, when asked yesterday about the feud. “I shook his hand, looked him in the eye, and said, ‘ Too good’.
“I think there’s a layer of respect that we both have for each other. He’s one of the greatest players of all time. I also read that he thinks I’m good for the sport. That doesn’t necessarily mean we like each other, but we’re going to go out there and give contrasting styles and personalities.”
Kyrgios’s eighth meeting with Nadal will be appointment television for any tennis fan. But it will also have a lot to live up to after the Khachanov win. Eventually, yesterday’s match may be remembered as the moment when Australia’s greatest sporting rebel finally came of age.