He has a tendency to lose badly. He demonstrated over the weekend exactly how bad of a winner he can be.
This is the man who adores adding the word “wild” to the phrase “wild card.”
But whether you like Nick Kyrgios or not (few people fall somewhere in the middle), he is a phenomenal player who may make it all the way to the Sunday final.
After losing to Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, the number four seed, in a temper tantrum-filled Wimbledon match on Saturday night, he will play American Brandon Nakashima today in the fourth round.
The match on Saturday included multiple full-scale hissy fits by both players at the same time, both on and off the court, despite several memorable stroppy episodes by prominent figures over the years, most notably John McEnroe in 1981.
Tsitsipas was so agitated by Kyrgios’ actions (including a mocking underarm serve) that he once slammed the ball into the spectators.
It narrowly missed two onlookers. Tsitsipas, who was enraged, also fired a few shots at Kyrgios.
The French referee Damien Dumusois engaged in yelling bouts with both players.
Kyrgios was motivated to cause as much problems for his opponent as he could.
Are you stupid, he shouted.
You are an embarrassment. It was all very rich coming from a guy who had publicly insulted a female official two days prior for tipping off the umpire about him in another match, calling her a “snitch.”
During the altercation on Saturday, Kyrgios also threatened the umpire with further profanity in his post-match news conference.
This was a cowardly tactic of intimidation given that officials do not have the luxury of post-play interviews to settle disputes.
John Lloyd, a former British number one, claimed in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday that Kyrgios ought to have been removed from the match for making it virtually impossible to play.
Dumusois was undoubtedly having a rough night because it was also his 43rd birthday. However, Kyrgios continued to complain, whine, and yell up until the conclusion of the four-set match.
Then, Tsitsipas asserted that his opponent had “a very terrible side” and speculated that “he was definitely a bully at school.”
He did apologize for his own inappropriate behavior on the court, though.
Unlike Kyrgios, However, try to keep in mind that this man is 27 and has played professional tennis for nine years the next time you witness a childish explosion.
When questioned earlier in the week about his frequent criticism of match officials, he attempted to defend it by claiming that he experiences worse abuse on social media than they do.
“My girlfriend responds to nasty mail. Hate messages affect my family. He cried, “I cope with hate letters.
This is also the man who, after being captured last week spitting on supporters, used the bully-boy defence of saying he was the one being attacked.
He said that there had been generalized “racism” coming from within the crowd.
What, then, is it that this angry man is so angry about? He was born in Canberra, the capital of Australia, and is the son of decorator George Kyrgios and Norlaila, a computer analyst with royal Malaysian ancestry.
She is related to the Oxford-educated Sultan of Pahang, who has ruled Malaysia since 2019, through her grandfather.
The couple’s three children include an older son named Christos and a daughter named Halimah who competed on The Voice Australia last year at the age of 32.
Up to the age of 14, when he decided to concentrate on tennis and won a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport, young Nick attended a Roman Catholic high school.
Although he has stated that basketball is his favorite sport and that he has always supported Tottenham Hotspur, he persisted in playing tennis and in 2013 took home the boys’ title at the Australian Open. Unmistakably, a star had been born.
But it didn’t take long for the media to start labeling him a “bad boy.” And it endured.
He received jeers at Wimbledon in 2015 for “tanking,” or giving up. Over the course of the time it took him to change his socks, he even managed to get into a shouting war with the umpire.
He received a fine for making vulgar comments about the girlfriend of another player in the same year.
He received a fine for throwing away another match in Shanghai a year later.
A pattern was now obviously taking shape. Because of their worries about his behaviour, Australia’s Olympic selectors opted not to put him in the team for Rio 2016.
In his response, Kyrgios threw toys out of his stroller as was to be expected.
He claimed that the selectors had treated people “unfairly and unjustly.”
He stated in advance that he would not be competing in the Tokyo Olympics because he did not want to perform in front of empty stadiums.
The “bad boy” of Wimbledon for a long time was McEnroe, who became well-known for his altercation with an official in 1981 during which he screamed, “You cannot be serious!” Even though that incident is remembered in sporting history, it seems completely unimportant today.
In fact, compared to Saturday night’s fit of hysteria on Court One, it hardly registers on the tantrum-ometer. Kyrgios also has five more years on McEnroe than he did at that time.
But there are still things to take away from this. Don’t forget that McEnroe quit complaining and won the championship in 1981.
Furthermore, he has frequently expressed his frustration with Kyrgios while holding the position as a highly regarded authority on the game of tennis today.
Nasty Nick had been “tanking” once more at the US Open in 2016, and McEnroe had a direct message for Nick Kyrgios: “Nick Kyrgios, if you don’t want to be a professional tennis player, try something else.”
Nevertheless, three years later, he called Kyrgios “the most talented man I have seen in possibly ten years.”
Even going so far as to say that Kyrgios would be his choice to mentor on today’s tour, McEnroe said last year.
Now that would be something to watch.