WIMBLEDON, England — All white is the dress code at Wimbledon, the oldest and most traditional of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. So when Nick Kyrgios wears a black hat for his on-court interview, he’s sending a message.
And that’s what he did Saturday night on Court No. 1 after his emotional, fireworks-filled 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7) victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece , number 4.
As Wimbledon enters its second week, the women’s tournament is wide open with the potential for a Novak Djokovic-Rafael Nadal men’s final looking more imminent by the day. And then there’s Kyrgios, a dangerous and disruptive force who has so much pure talent but is so temperamental and flamboyant and so drawn to and repulsed by his chosen profession that the sport can neither control nor ignore him.
He plays when he feels like it, then disappears for months, only to return to wreak havoc and provide headline-grabbing theatrics.
“Everywhere I go, I see full stadiums,” he said after his fight with Tsitsipas. “The media likes to say I’m bad for the sport, but obviously not.”
Kyrgios is an extremely talented Australian who is ambivalent about the rigors and demands of professional tennis. He revels in his role as the game’s grand criminal, unafraid to catch, spit or berate referees and referees.
He torments the young court workers for not keeping the changing chairs with fresh towels and bananas. He destroys rockets. One ricocheted off the ground and nearly hit a ball boy in the face at a tournament in California this year. His egregious acts regularly racked up tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
He will then return to the court and fire one of the most dangerous serves in the game. He uses a kind of magic clinic to make shots—between-the-legs, curling forehands, aces—that other players can only dream of.
He is the ticking time bomb that fills stadiums and has hordes of young fans. He’s both sports’ worst nightmare and meal ticket: hard to watch, but also hard not to watch.
When he loses, it’s always someone else’s fault. When he wins, it’s because he overcame all sorts of forces against him — tournament directors, the news media, the tennis establishment, fans who hurled racial slurs at him.
“No script. Unfiltered. Unmissable,” said the @Wimbledon Twitter feed on Saturday night as Kyrgios, in all his brilliance and swagger, beat and outlasted Tsitsipas in three hours.
All evening, Kyrgios hounded the chair umpire, as well as the referees and tournament supervisors, for failing to foul Tsitsipas after he angrily sent a ball into the crowd, coming dangerously close to directly hitting a moving fan. Kyrgios claimed the referee would certainly have sent him off if he had done the same. (He may not be wrong about that.)
The almost endless complaints and interruptions shook Tsitsipas. He struggled to keep his composure, complaining to the chair umpire that only one person on the court was interested in tennis while the other was turning the match into a circus. He then took matters into his own hands and started trying to pin Kyrgios with his punches. The crowd of more than 10,000 grew louder with each confrontation.
It became even more intense after Kyrgios finished off Tsitsipas in the tiebreak with three unreturnable shots – a characteristic half volley in the open court; ripped backhand winner; and a drop shot from the baseline that died on the grass just out of Tsitsipas’ reach.
The drama came to a head when Tsitsipas and Kyrgios’ press conferences turned into an insult-filled debate about propriety and who has more friends in the dressing room.
Tsitsipas, certain that Kyrgios had deliberately messed up the match – and probably excited that Kyrgios had beaten him twice in a month – said his colleagues needed to get together and set rules to contain Kyrgios.
“It’s constant bullying, that’s what he does,” Tsitsipas said of Kyrgios. “He bullies opponents. He was probably a school bully himself. I don’t like hooligans. I don’t like people who put other people down. He also has some good traits in his character. But when he… he also has a very evil side to him that, if exposed, can really do a lot of harm and harm to those around him.
Tsitsipas said he regretted throwing the ball into the crowd, but felt less remorse for another that went over the net and into the scoreboard, earning a penalty point.
“I was aiming for my opponent’s body, but I missed by a long, long way,” he said. He then added: “When I feel that other people don’t respect me and don’t respect what I do on the other side of the court, it’s absolutely normal for me to step up and do something about it.”
Kyrgios watched it all on a nearby TV. Minutes later, he sat behind the microphone wearing that black hat and t-shirt featuring Dennis Rodman, the one-time NBA Rebel, and a big grin. Once again, Tsitsipas had created a situation where Kyrgios could get the better of him, even allowing him the rare chance to take the road and claim some kind of innocence.
“He was the one hitting me,” he said of Tsitsipas. “He was the one who hit a spectator. He was the one who threw him out of the stadium.
He called Tsitsipas “soft” for letting Kyrgios’ conversations with tournament officials get to him.
“We are not cut from the same cloth,” he said of Tsitsipas. “I’m going up against guys who are real competitors. If he’s affected by it today, then it’s holding him back because somebody could just do that and it’s going to throw him off his game like that. I just think it’s soft.
Tsitsipas’ mother is a former professional and his father is a tennis coach who raised his sons on the tennis court from an early age. Kyrgios is of Greek and Malay descent, and his father made a living by painting houses.
“I’m good in the dressing room,” continued Kyrgios, who was already rolling. “I have a lot of friends, just to tell you. I’m actually one of the most liked. I’m ready. He is not liked.”
Then, one final dagger.
He said he didn’t go on court to make friends, to compliment his opponents on their play, and that he has no idea what he did to make Tsitsipas so upset that he barely shook his hand at the end of the match .
Every time he lost, Kyrgios said, even when he was thrown out of matches, he looked his opponent in the eye and told him he was the better man.
“He wasn’t man enough to do that today,” he said.
The win put Kyrgios through to the last 16, where he will play American Brandon Nakashima on Center Court on Monday, and two wins from a possible semi-final showdown with Nadal, suggesting the 22-time Grand Slam champion could go on to win. It will be the ultimate hero-vs-villain showdown, a perfect setting for all kinds of potential Kyrgios outbursts and rudeness, but also, as this Twitter feed says, unmissable theater.
Nadal is known to be one of the game’s true gentlemen, a keeper of the unspoken codes between players. He admired Kyrgios’ talent and questioned the baggage he brings on court and the ordeals he often creates with the umpires, especially when his chances of victory start to slip away.
On Saturday night, after winning his own match and hearing about the Kyrgios-Tsitsipas spat, Nadal turned philosophical when asked when a player had crossed the line and whether Kyrgios was going too far. According to him, it is a matter of conscience.
“I think everyone should go to bed with peace of mind with the things you’ve done,” Nadal said. “And if you can’t sleep easy and be happy with yourself, it’s because you’ve done things that probably aren’t ethical.”
How does Kyrgios sleep? Only he knows.
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