Nick Kyrgios goes down fighting to Rafael Nadal1:03
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20160518223555im_/http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/external?url=http%3A%2F%2Fvideomam.news.com.au.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fgenerated%2Fprod%2F05%2F13%2F2016%2F219494%2Fimage1024x768.jpg%3Fcount%3D1&width=650&api_key=kq7wnrk4eun47vz9c5xuj3mc)
Tennis: Nick Kyrgios has gone down to Rafael Nadal in their third round clash in Rome. Nadal went on to break in an epic third game that lasted 10 minutes.
AFTER Nick Kyrgios lost his singles match in Australia’s Davis Cup against Kazakhstan in Darwin last July, and was then replaced for the deciding rubbers, he went home to Canberra for a break.
There, it was assumed, the man heard muttering “I don’t want to be here’’ during his match — and who had often claimed tennis was a burden — would work the PlayStation or shoot three-pointers.
Instead the next day Kyrgios was spotted on a practice court pounding ball after ball. Exorcising the demons of Darwin and honing his skills for the next challenge. Not the behaviour of a man who finds the game tiresome.
When the Australian Olympic Committee’s head prefect Kitty Chiller added Kyrgios to her naughty list — the group of potential Olympians who were “on watch’’ due to their allegedly poor behaviour — the backslapping was guaranteed. At last someone was taking on Australian sport’s enfant terrible!
Conversely, when Tennis Australia president Steve Healy took Kyrgios’s side in his cyberspace spat with Chiller stating Kyrgios had “made a concerted effort to improve his performance and behaviour’’, many will have cringed.
TA was again mollycoddling one of its few world-class players instead of imposing the tough discipline required.
Yet, to those inside the game, there is another side to Kyrgios. Beyond the tantrums and profanities they see a man who is passionate about his sport, if still insecure about his place in it. One reconciling his vast talent with his expectations and only now learning to cope with the inevitable disappointments.
That Kyrgios returned immediately to the court after the Darwin tie is cited by insiders as a demonstration of the dedication he hides at moments of disappointment. Like a boy who pulls a girl’s ponytail because he is afraid she doesn’t like him, Kyrgios lashes out when tennis threatens to hurt him.
In that regard, some believe Kyrgios’s landmark victory over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014 was a millstone. When similar results did not automatically follow, his disappointment manifested itself in more on-court meltdowns.
What Nadal thinks of Kyrgios0:24
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20160518223555im_/http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/external?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcontent4.video.news.com.au%2Ffoxsports%2Fprod%2Farchive%2F2016%2F05%2F12%2FFSD_120516_TEN_NADAL_ON_PLAYING_KYRGIOS.jpg&width=650&api_key=kq7wnrk4eun47vz9c5xuj3mc)
Tennis: Nick Kyrgios got some kind words from former world no:1 Rafa Nadal, rating him as 'one of the best in the world'.
The worst came in Montreal last August when Kyrgios made his infamous “Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend’’ remark to Stan Wawrinka. Rightly, the tennis world was appalled. But for those close to Kyrgios the fallout was again instructive.
So racked with remorse was Kyrgios by the universal backlash to his grossly insensitive remark it was mutually agreed he return to Canberra instead of playing the Davis Cup semi-final against Great Britain in Glasgow. Such was Kyrgios’s fragile state of mind it was feared he would act out again in front of 10,000 Andy Murray loving Scots.
You might consider this a brat getting his comeuppance. But Kyrgios’s remorse flies in the face of the faux gangsta swagger. It is indicative of man who cares more than he lets on and, Tennis Australia believes, is capable of learning from his mistakes.
Kyrgios has been regularly paired on lists of infamy with Bernard Tomic. But where Tomic seems a hapless product of an overbearing father with limited social skills, Kyrgios is bright, engaged and fiercely competitive.
Tomic’s effort is constantly questioned. Kyrgios, the man who “hates tennis’’, worked tirelessly on his rehabilitation last year when he had a hot spot in his back and returned too soon to play at Indian Wells where he subsequently injured an ankle.
If Kyrgios has lost some public respect, he retains support in the locker room. “He is funny, polite, he makes fun of himself, he doesn’t take himself too seriously,’’ said Murray this week. “And I think he does seem to be learning all the time.’’
The final sentiment is shared by Tennis Australia officials who remain adamant Kyrgios’s on-court behaviour is improving — even as they hold their breath.
Significantly, those in the game accept Kyrgios has invited scorn. Although some argue his “bad boy’’ reputation is disproportionate to that of wife-beating footballers or drug cheats.
But while Tennis Australia is satisfied Kyrgios is on the right course to improving his behaviour and his public image they won’t allow the AOC’s distant observations to inform their actions or even imperil his Olympic selection.
Originally published as Passion behind Kyrgios’ faux gangsta swagger