Sunday 3 July 2022 10:09 PM Love him or loathe him, Nick Kyrgios is a prodigious talent writes ROBERT ... trends now
He can be a terrible loser. Over the weekend, he showed just what a terrible winner he can be, too. This is the man who absolutely loves to put the ‘wild’ into ‘wild card’.
Yet, love him or loathe him (and few sit anywhere in between), Nick Kyrgios is a prodigious talent who could be going all the way to Sunday’s final.
Today he faces American Brandon Nakashima in the fourth round, following Saturday night’s tantrum-filled Wimbledon showdown with the number four seed, Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Despite some memorably stroppy moments by famous names over the years – most notably John McEnroe in 1981 – Saturday’s match saw repeated full-scale hissy fits by both players at the same time, on and off the court.
Today Australia's Nick Kyrgios faces American Brandon Nakashima in the fourth round Pictured: Nick Kyrgios celebrates beating Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas during their men's singles tennis match on the sixth day of Wimbledon
Tsitsipas became so rattled by Kyrgios’s behaviour (not least a mocking underarm serve) that, at one point, he whacked the ball into the crowd. It only just missed two spectators. The furious Tsitsipas also aimed a few shots at Kyrgios. Both players had shouting matches with the French umpire, Damien Dumusois.
Kyrgios was determined to land his opponent in as much trouble as possible. ‘Are you dumb?’ he yelled. ‘You’re a disgrace.’ It was all pretty rich coming from a player who, just two days earlier, had publicly humiliated a female official, calling her a ‘snitch’ for reporting him to the umpire in another match.
During Saturday’s spat, Kyrgios also told the umpire that he would unleash further abuse in his post-match press conference, a cowardly form of intimidation given officials do not have the luxury of interviews to settle scores after play has finished. Former British number one John Lloyd wrote in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday that Kyrgios should have been kicked out for making the game almost unplayable.
Dumusois was certainly having a bad evening (it was actually the poor man’s 43rd birthday). Yet Kyrgios’s moaning, carping and shouting were incessant, right up to the end of the four-set match. Afterwards, Tsitsipas accused his opponent of having ‘a very evil side’, adding: ‘He was probably a bully at school.’ He did, however, apologise for his own bad conduct on the court.
Not so Kyrgios. The next time you see another puerile explosion, however, try to remember that this man is 27 and has been a professional tennis player for nine years.
The Aussie tennis champ said: 'My girlfriend deals with hate messages. My family deals with hate messages. I deal with hate messages,’ Pictured: Australia's Nick Kyrgios with girlfriend Costeen Hatzi after practice
When asked earlier last week about his repeated abuse of match officials, he tried to justify it by saying he receives more social media abuse than they do. ‘My girlfriend deals with hate messages. My
