Talk about Nick Kyrgios is to talk about one of the most controversial and highest quality tennis players on the current circuit ATP. At only 19 years old, she was already in the top 50 and, although she has reached thirteenth place, at 27 she is number 40.
A place in the ranking that, seeing his promising start to his career, still knows little. But it is that during these years there have been many who have lamented the waste of Kyrgios’ talent, more focused on altercations on and off the court than concentrating on playing and winning.
As far as Wimbledon (only three games) has already starred in two of the most notorious altercations of the tournament. In his match against Paul Jubbs admitted that he spat at a fan at the end of the game because he insulted him during the match: “It was disrespectful. Someone insulted me, told me I was shit, from the public. Is that normal? No. I don’t understand why it happens all the time,” Kyrgios said after the match.
Nick Kyrgios loses his nerve in Indian Wells
EFE
“I love Wimbledon. It has nothing to do with the tournament. It is simply a generation of people who believe that because they are on social media they have the right to say what they want and they continue to do so in real life. Because there is a fence and physically I can’t do anything, or say anything, because I’d get in trouble.” As if that were not enough, she appeared at the press conference with a plate of sushi to which she was pouring sauce as the journalists asked her questions.
But the Australian’s adventures on the London grass did not end there. In this Saturday’s duel against Tsitsipas, the Greek hit a racket that sent a ball into the stands at high speed after missing a point. Kyrgios had just won the second set and the Greek did not accept it in the best way, to the point that the Australian requested the presence of the supervisor and that Tsitsipas was disqualified for his action.
[Kyrgios escupió a un aficionado en Wimbledon: “Menos mal que hay una valla porque si no…”]
From there, the two exchanged little affectionate gestures. The Greek tried to hit the Australian a couple of times when he had the opportunity to finish off the edge of the net and he responded with ironic smiles every time he signed a compromised point.
So far that has been the contribution of Kyrgios in the Grand Slam British, in which it continues and in which it also appears on the horizon as the hypothetical toughest rival for Nadal before reaching the end.
Nadal’s threat
The Balearic goes for the ‘friendly’ side of the room after Cilic y Berrettini, two of its main threats, have fallen out of the tournament due to contracting covid. Thus, Kyrgios seems to be one of the few who can stand up to Nadal, who is going from less to more in the tournament.
But Kyrgios’ precedents in the ‘bigs’ aren’t very promising either, as he has never made it past the quarter-finals in the singles draw. Precisely reaching that round was his best participation in Wimbledon, where he did it in 2014.
Nick Kyrgios, during the Australian Open 2022
During all this time, Kyrgios has starred in some of the most tense, hilarious and controversial moments in tennis in recent years, so it’s no wonder the incidents he’s racked up so far at Wimbledon.
From a young age he pointed out ways, and in the masters 1000 de Montreal in 2015 he told Wawrinka during a game that Kokkinakis he had slept with his girlfriend. “Your girlfriend slept with Kokkinakis, I’m sorry mate,” she snapped.
[Kyrgios ataca a Rafa Nadal durante su última rabieta contra un juez de silla]
On some occasions he has directly let himself be won, showing a totally passive attitude towards the match and infuriating the fans, as in Shanghai 2016. Zverev He won after Kyrgios faced the public and to top it off he charged the journalists for their attitude towards him. The ATP fined him $25,000, but Kyrgios doesn’t seem to care too much.
He also didn’t care much that during a break in a game in Queen’s pretend to masturbate with a bottle. A gesture that once again went around the world and left everyone present in the match against Marin Cilic speechless. New sanction, this time 15,000 euros.
Rackets often smashed
The Australian, of Greek and Malay descent, also put on an important show at the Rome Masters 1000 in 2019 against a very young Casper Ruud. In this case it was his bad loss that led him, after Ruud broke his sque, to kick bottles, break his racket (a Kyrgios classic) and knock over a chair in the middle of the court. Tournament Resolution: Disqualified.
But you don’t have to go that far back in time either. This same year in Indian Wells and precisely against Rafa Nadal, Kyrgios lost his papers again. He was about to hit a ball boy, broke his racket again and shouted unseemly things on numerous occasions for which he was penalized. Another 25,000 euros.
Nick Kyrgios, en Wimbledon
It was not the first time that this type of Dantesque situation occurred in a match between the two tennis players. In 2019 Kyrgios had already managed to turn on Nadal in the tournament of Acapulco, Kyrgios saved three match points to end up winning after a vibrant match. The issue of controversy was a spoon kick (another trademark gesture of the Australian’s house) that the Spaniard did not like at all, who later reproached him at a press conference for not having “respect for the public, the rival and towards himself” .
But, as we are seeing this year, he also takes advantage of the biggest tennis tournaments to get noticed. In the US Open de 2015 he stayed -or became- asleep in a match against the Scotsman Andy Murray after losing the first set. A surreal situation that he later justified: “I just took a nap. It’s good for your health.”
[El tormento de Kyrgios: el infierno de autolesiones y pensamientos suicidas detrás del ‘monstruo’]
On another occasion, after losing against a tennis player who was more than 300 places below him in the ATP ranking, he revealed the reason for his defeat: “Honestly, I have been playing more Pokémon Gothan tennis lately”. A fan reproached him for his attitude comparing it to that of Djokovic y Federer, to which he replied: “Does Federer or Nole have a Gyarados (a kind of Pokemon) evolved to a level 2000? I do not think so”.
One of the many hookups that the ‘bad boy’ par excellence of current tennis has had with fans, chair umpires and rivals and that, if everything goes according to forecasts, they could face Rafa Nadal again at Wimbledon.
