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This was published 7 years ago
Nick Kyrgios needs to decide if playing tennis - and succeeding - is what he really wants
By Peter FitzSimons
The Nick Kyrgios thing? The outrageous tanking at the Shanghai Open? It was good, at least, that the Sportsbet mob - did I mention that everyone loses sooner or later, so don't waste your readies? - refunded everyone's money on the match in question, and the quote from them was amusing.
"Another temper tantrum from nasty Nick was not what anyone who backed him expected, so we've done the right thing by our punters and given them back their cash that they placed on him in good faith," Will Byrne, their spokesman said. "In other betting news we've stopped taking bets on who the Tool of 2016 is and have paid out early on Nick."
Yup. And good on the ATP, in turn, for taking a hard line on Kyrgios, fining him, suspending him for eight weeks and insisting he sees a sports psychologist.
I have just two quibbles. Firstly, is a sports psychologist, usually associated with mere motivation and ability to focus, the right person for the job? For does no-one else have the sense, and I offer this respectfully, that what ails Kyrgios is a tad wider and deeper than that, that on a bad night he is somewhere up on the borderline where the bad winds howl?
Illustration: John Shakespeare
Secondly, what if, despite all that, what drives him berko is that . . . he's right? What if the actual answer to the existential questions Kyrgios seems to be constantly asking himself – "Is this worth it?" "Do I really want to be hitting damn tennis balls for the next 10 years, as the season change, but the hotels don't' and I grow old?" – is, NO.
I once asked Ian Thorpe if he never looked at the ludicrousness of spending his teen years and his twenties pounding up and down a pool every day for hours on end, just so for a year or two he could be the fastest in the world, before some other booger inevitably came along that was faster? He instantly knew what I was on about, but said that he couldn't allow himself to think like that. To prosper, to win, he had to push down the rational thoughts, and be borderline unbalanced himself, obsessing with irrational focus on something so ultimately inconsequential as shaving a few hundredths of a second off every lap.
These days, you almost can't compete in many sports unless you have that same irrational obsessiveness. In short, if Kyrgios did decide he just doesn't want to live like this, wants to hang up the racquet, I for one would applaud him. What is clear, is that he simply can't go on the way he is now.
How the Wallabies can win - one day
Israel Dagg fends off Israel Folau. Credit: Anthony Au-Yeung
Today, chil'un, we are talking lateral thinking. Here is the grandest problem of them all, the one most often offered up as the best of the genre:
You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus:
1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.
Knowing that there can only be one passenger in your car, who would you choose?
Solution: The old lady of course! After helping the old lady into the car, you can give your keys to your friend, and wait with your perfect partner for the bus.
Ok. In the mood now? Fine, let's apply it to rugby. Your national team, the Wallabies, has been flogged by the All Blacks since rising forever. You try everything. You change coaches, tactics, players, and get them to change their haircuts, but year after year, they get flogged. What do you do?
Matt Petersen, a Fitzphile from Randwick, has the answer!
"The ARU," he writes, "should fully fund the AFL to expand aggressively into New Zealand. Two teams – North Island and South Island. As these are getting established, the AFL will do their usual masterful work on building the game from the ground up through schools, local communities and junior comps. Ten years after that, and with at least one flag under their belt, all of the fittest, fastest, toughest, longest-kicking Kiwis will be playing the four-quarter game. This will greatly dilute their national sport talent pool, thus weakening the All Blacks, allowing the Wallabies to assume their position as the number one team in the world. Simple."
GENIUS, I tell you! Just rename it Australasian Rules, and we are on our way.
Transcending sport
Golfing great Greg Norman. Credit: Lindsey Potter
Sigh.
I know. I feel the same. You and me, babe. We are the little people, living little lives, quibbling over our quotidian affairs, and as to our hopes, our dreams, our big plans, mostly never get past next Tuesday, let alone a few years from now. That is because we are too little, and our vision too limited.
I wonder what the BIG people are doing, living big lives, planning to leave extraordinary legacies, waaaay into the future? People like . . . say . . . Greg Norman?
Well, how funny I should say that, because just this week, Golf Digest has done a big profile on Greg Norman's business interests, detailing how, even as we speak, Big Greg is, "repositioning of his company from a mostly consumer-facing brand to one that will expand to business-to-business services".
Yessir! That's big!
"At its core," Golf Digest notes sagely, "is Norman's desire to transcend the limited world of sports, and an acknowledgment that he, too, won't be around forever."
Say it ain't so! Greg is immortal, you ingrates. But still, they are right to note that Greg really has outgrown the world of sports, and is moving . . . beyond.
You tell the folks Greg, about your plans, in your BIG life.
"When I started to wean myself off the game," he said, "I needed to think about what's next. I said I wanted to think about not just this year or next year, but let's think about the next 200 years of this company."
Exactly! That's how a big person lives a BIG life. And Greg is big!
And he is the gift that just keeps on giving . . .
Just when you think you've heard it all.
Calling all cricketers
As if you didn't know, next Saturday is Canteen's Bandanna day, whereby the children's cancer charity raises awareness, and funds. In honour of it, each grade of every team playing in Canberra's City and Suburban Cricket Association is wearing a bandanna that matches the club colours. This is the third year they've done it, to raise a bucket load of cash. Surely other cricket associations across our brown and pleasant land should follow suit?
THEY SAID
Shane Watson and Michael Clarke. Credit: Ryan Pierse
Michael Clarke, on 60 Minutes, reopens some old wounds, from the Indian tour, three years ago: "I said that there is a number of players, a group in this team at the moment, that are like a tumour and if we don't fix it, it's going to turn into a cancer. Shane was one of those players, yes."
Shane Watson returns serve, with a cross-court back-hander, to Clarke's melon: "For me I think it was more a reflection of the person he is more than what it was directed towards me. In the end it is really disappointing that things like that start to come out two or three years later on when we are all very content in retirement."
Clarke on the story that he threw Lara Bingle's engagement ring down the toilet: "I'm not throwing any diamond ring down a toilet. Complete made-up 100 per cent bullshit!"
Nick Kyrgios on being fined and suspended by the ATP: "I regret that my year is ending this way and that I will not have a chance to continue chasing the ATP finals. My body finally just gave out in Shanghai both physically and mentally. This is no excuse, and I know very well that I need to apologise to the fans . . ."
Melbourne Victory manager Kevin Muscat after a 4-1 loss to Melbourne City: "I promised myself I wasn't going to have a whinge, because we've only got ourselves to blame for tonight, but the fourth goal's a foul."
Australia's own Tyler Wright, on winning the world surfing championship: "It doesn't even feel like cloud nine. I don't feel too different, I generally just feel like me. I'm the same person I was three days ago, doing the same things with the same people except we've just got a bigger reason to celebrate now, I guess."
NFL ratings are down in the States. Neil Macker, an entertainment analyst for Morningstar, an investment research firm, on it: "Sports at the end of the day is a narrative. You can't create it. It's organic. If you don't have those compelling story lines, people aren't going to take the time to watch." I am guessing that watching Donald Trump implode is much more compelling.
Anna Meares hanging up the bike: "Obviously a lot of people will be wondering where I am going to post-Rio. With some time in reflection I have decided that I am actually going to retire."
Jarryd Hayne on SnapchatGate: "It was bullshit, the whole 'He is a bikie, you should know ...' How am I supposed to know? Fair enough the guy has a history . . . but to come out and call me a gangster." Who called Hayne a gangster?
Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona on pitcher Trevor Bauer suffering a drone related injury: "It's pretty self-explanatory. We've all, at some point or another ... had a drone-related problem." Don't . . . move. Not a muscle, hear? She's watching. One smirk, one snigger and you are in deep shit!
Dual international Ellyse Perry can't see a code war breaking out any time soon: "There's a number of positives to the amount of opportunity female athletes are getting in Australia now . . . and the amount of support they're getting from sporting organisations. Whether it's Cricket Australia, the women's AFL, rugby, tennis, netball, soccer – there's so much of it now and I think the crux of it is it's about providing opportunity to females to play their chosen sports."
Faf du Plessis on the sensitive new age Australian cricket team: "I think this Australian team is a little bit different than the team of old . . . Sledging . . . it's not as important these days. It's respecting the opposition and trying to win the game of cricket."
Boyd Cordner, interviewed after the rugby league test between Australia and New Zealand and after he received a nasty head wound requiring nine stitches: "Bit of Vaso to stop the blood, and back out there."
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Celebrated Olympian Anna Meares. Credit: Janie Barrett
Anna Meares. The two time Olympic gold medallist, and flag-bearer at Rio, announced her retirement this week. She has been a class act throughout her career, and this column wishes her particularly well in her retirement.
The Wallabies. Take on the All Blacks tonight, at Eden Park. If the goodies win, it will be the first time in 30 years at that ground.
Michael Cheika. Is it me, or does the Wallabies coach have the best perpetual six-day growth since the days of Yasser Arafat?
All Blacks. Sigh. Are on the edge of a historic 18th consecutive Test win.
Kangaroos. Had a good win over the Kiwis in the warm-up for the Four Nations thing.
Octagonal. Great horse of the mid 1990s passed away at the age of 24. Say, on that subject, as a rule, do they keep champion greyhounds to old age, too? Just asking.
Tim Cahill. Scored a wonder goal for Melbourne City, from about 40 metres out. Seemed pleased about it.
Olympians Geoff Huegill, Craig Stevens, Matt Dunn, Jacob Hansford, Johnno Cotterill, Keesja Gofers, Nicola Zagame and Paralympic swimmer Taylor Corry. Organised by Olympic Decathlete Peter Hadfield, the Olympians swam in the Special Olympics Splash in a series of corporate relays to raise over $60k for Special Olympics Australia. Grand total over three years - $210K!
RIP Anthony Foley. The 42-year-old Munster coach and long-time Irish international found dead in his hotel room hours ahead of his side's European Champions Cup clash with French side Racing 92.
The Australian Boat Race. Takes place tomorrow, on Sydney Harbour as the University of Sydney and University of Melbourne go at it. Their teams, of course, are studded with Rio Olympians. The race was revived in 2010, and while the Melbourne Uni women of their VIII are ahead six-nil, Sydney Uni is leading five-one in the Men's 1st VIII.
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz