There would seem to be little wrong with Nick Kyrgios's tennis lately. He looks fit and in form, and the gifted young Australian might do some damage in the final slam of the season in New York next month. But there is a lot wrong with Nick Kyrgios. The kid needs help.
The latest in his growing list of look-at-me moments – telling Stan Warwrinka in public that his friend and fellow Davis Cup team-mate Thanasi Kokkinakis had slept with his girlfriend – was by some way his worst.
It will probably result in a fine, a grunted apology and, if the narrative plays out the way it has done at Wimbledon – and elsewhere over the past year or so, there will be another incident up the road soon enough.
Changeover
On a changeover during the second set of their match at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Kyrgios told the world number four, "Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend, sorry to tell you that mate."
Wawrinka ignored the insult and withdrew in the third set with a back injury. They shook hands at the net, but no amount of tennis etiquette could disguise Wawrinka’s anger.
Asked immediately after the match in a courtside interview to explain his remarks, Kyrgios justified his jaw-dropper with smug indifference: “He was getting a bit lippy with me, kind of in the heat of the moment. I don’t know, I just said it.”
Kyrgios knew what buttons he was pressing, though. Wawrinka earlier this year split with his wife, Ilham, and had been rumoured to be seeing the young Croatian player, Donna Vekic – as had Kokkinakis.
Talking to Swiss journalists in French later, Wawrinka responded with measured indignation, revealing he had confronted Kyrgios in the locker room, but the Australian tried to avoid him.
“It stays in the locker room,” is all Wawrinka would say of their exchange.
He added: “It’s not the first time that he has big problems on court in terms of what he says and in terms how he acts. I just hope the ATP will take big measures against him because he is young, maybe, but there’s no excuse. Every match he has problems. Every match he behaves very badly.
“On top of that, the problem is that he doesn’t just behave badly towards himself, he behaves badly towards the people around, the other players, the ball kids, the umpires. I really hope the ATP will take major action against him this time.”
None of which seemed to impress the ATP – who made no mention of the incident on their website coverage of the match and then slammed a copyright ban on the footage – Kyrgios’s mother, Norlaila, who endorsed his actions before asking how she could delete her Twitter account, or his brother, Christos, who wondered if Wawrinka had assaulted Kyrgios, a cavalier suggestion coming from a lawyer.
If he had, there is a fair chance ambulances would have been involved. Wawrinka is a hefty unit, and he had enough reason to lose his temper. He did well not to.
“I think there are things, regardless of how you are, regardless of the stress you have on the court, there are things you just can’t say,” he said later. “And, regardless of whether he sidesteps it, I think the way he behaves on court he has big problems.”
Quiet word
The catalogue of incidents is getting too long for Kyrgios or his family to ignore. If they care about him as a son and brother, they will have a quiet word.
He has used up pretty much all the goodwill set aside for him by well-meaning friends, hangers-on and sections of the Australian media. There are not many excuses left.
If Kyrgios cares about his career – and some times he is so blase about his success, wealth and celebrity he professes to hate tennis – the hip young dude from Canberra who smirks when he should be smiling, who plainly is struggling with fame, needs to understand he is not the only clown in town. He is part of a travelling circus, certainly, but the laughter stopped a little while ago.
(Guardian service)
