By Christopher Clarey /New York Times
MELBOURNE, Australia—It felt a particularly long way from the hushed tones of Wimbledon’s Centre Court, even a long way from the rowdier Wimbledon food court.
Nick Kyrgios playing at Hisense Arena at the Australian Open brings in all sorts of curiosity seekers—those with a grounds pass who know their tennis and those with a grounds pass who don’t. Not that traditional tennis expertise is necessarily much help when it comes to understanding what makes the Kyrgios game tick.
Kyrgios at Hisense, the second-largest stadium at the tournament, also brings in plenty of beer swillers and foul language despite the signs at the entrance gates to Melbourne Park that remind the public that this Grand Slam is “a family event.”
On Wednesday night, an otherwise friendly Aussie seated down from Kyrgios’ mother, continually shouted obscenities in the direction of Kyrgios’s 32-year-old opponent, Andreas Seppi. The 14th-seeded Kyrgios muttered a few of his own at himself and his lot in life on the luminous blue court whose color often matched his mood.
He was shaking his head between points more than Andy Murray, even after aces and slapped winners. He was in clear command, then in evident disarray, then back in contention and on the cusp of victory before finally going out of his home Grand Slam event in only the second round, 1-6, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2, 10-8, with boos ringing in his ears as he walked off the people’s show court that he keeps requesting to play on.
If that is a long sentence, it was also a long night, which is quite a feat considering the breakneck pace at which Kyrgios plays the game that he can make look so easy and then, with little warning, so hard.
Even for those in the know, it was hard to see Wednesday’s turnabout coming. Up by two sets with Seppi serving at 2-3, 30-Love, Kyrgios, who had yet to face a break point, ran forward, failed to track down a good drop shot and was promptly hit with a code violation for an audible obscenity that was directed at those in his player box.
He would not be quite the same again, and when Seppi hit a backhand return winner to break him at 4-4, Kyrgios spiked his racket to the ground near his chair and received another code violation, this one penalizing him a point in the next game.
Seppi closed out the set and then rolled through the fourth as Kyrgios began to walk like a man much, much older than 21. A knee problem limited his preparation for the Open, and the word in the stands near Kyrgios’s mother was that he has been having issues with his quadriceps.
“I’m feeling a lot of things; but yeah, the knee’s probably the main cause of it,” Kyrgios said later.
And yet, he was able to pick up the pace again in the fifth set. Frankly, a dull match got considerably livelier—and not just because of the casual tweener Kyrgios hit facing forward during a baseline rally late in the fifth set for no other apparent reason than because he felt like it (he also won the rally).
That the tweener came with Seppi serving for the match only made it seem more of a symbol of all that makes Kyrgios so maddening and fascinating.
Nonchalance should be a dirty word for Kyrgios at this stage after his suspension by the men’s tour at the end of 2016 for a lack of effort during a defeat in Shanghai. It was an outrageous display—he started walking to his chair midpoint at one stage—although he did manage to shorten the eight-week Associations of Tennis Professionals suspension to three weeks after agreeing to see a sports psychologist.
He continues to do so.
“It’s going very well,” he said on Wednesday night, and it was hard to tell if he was being ironic.
A Kyrgios news conference can be as difficult to parse as a Kyrgios match, but he is getting old enough to know better. His best effort, not his best tennis, is required.
“It’s his commitment level and his interest level and his excitement level, that’s what’s gone away,” said Jim Courier, the former No. 1 player who was commenting on the match for Australia’s Channel 7.
John McEnroe, another former No. 1-turned-commentator, put it in harsher terms: “It’s OK to show your emotions and I’d like to see that in a one-on-one game when you’re out there by yourself. But when he goes through those periods when he’s not competing, it’s just a black eye for the sport. And it’s a black eye for him.”
Kyrgios still managed to get a match point, and to give credit where it is entirely due, Seppi saved it in style: ending a long and intense rally with a cocksure forehand down-the-line winner.
In 2015 on this same court, Seppi was the one who had a two-set lead against Kyrgios before losing their fourth-round match, 8-6, in the fifth set.
“Maybe it was meant to be,” the 89th-ranked Seppi said of his victory on Wednesday night.
Maybe, but it would be even more meaningful if Kyrgios took it as a big hint that he should start doing justice to his Outback-size talent by hiring a coach and putting a solid platform in place to keep him from consistently getting sidetracked.
“I don’t think there’s anyone in the top 100 without a coach except me,” he said. “That needs to change. Got to start taking it more seriously. Preseason is an important part of the year. You build foundations for the rest of the year. Yeah, it’s on me.”
He was referring to the responsibility for Wednesday’s upset: for the choices he made, the pickup basketball he played that led to an injury.
“Poor management I guess,” he said. “I think I didn’t have the best preparation. It’s on me.”
The Australian Open and Hisense Arena won’t be quite the same without him, but just imagine the scene if and when he gets his act together.
Image credits: AP