Nick Kyrgios is different this year, even if he says he isn’t.
“I’ve always been the same person,” Kyrgios said to the media after his third-round win against Alex De Minaur in Montreal.
Perhaps, but the results and they speak for themselves. This year Kyrgios has won three doubles titles including the Australian Open, he’s won a singles title in Washington, and he’s played in the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Novak Djokovic in four sets.
At the Masters 1000 National Bank Open in Montreal, he beat World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in three sets and crushed Alex De Minaur in straights before losing to World No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz in the quarter-final.
The 27-year-old Australian has already pushed his ranking up to 27th and achieved his goal of being seeded for the US Open at the end of the month.
Clearly, he’s not the same guy who said just a few years ago tennis is not the most important thing to him. Clearly, it is now.
The question is: why?
Spoiler alert: that’s the answer too.
“I want to prove to myself that I can still play some amazing tennis. I’m doing it for a lot of people just so I can have a bit of peace and quiet — I can actually rest at nighttime,” Kyrgios explains when asked what he’s trying to prove.
And that’s the difference. Kyrgios can give a clear, thoughtful answer that explains his motivation to win.
He’s found his why.
There’s more: “I feel like, compared to other players, I deal with a lot of shit, negativity, bad media, bad articles, this, that, wasted talent, whatever. So I feel like when it’s all said and done, if I continue to play like this for a little bit, prove people wrong, I can just relax a little bit. Like have a beer at a pub, not get bothered about it. You’re wasting your talent. Do you know what I mean?”
Yes, of course we know what he means.
To the tennis world, Kyrgios has been a firecracker since he broke onto the tennis scene and soon brought it to a halt with a win over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014. Like a firecracker, he’s loud and he’s capable of explosions: smashing racquets, launching into match-long tirades at umpires or those in his players’ box for seemingly no reason.
He has never seemed to care that the elements of his game are good enough to topple the world’s best – Kyrgios sports winning records over Novak Djokovic and Medvedev. If he only had some discipline, tennis fans believed, he could contend for the world’s biggest titles.
“I just want to be like: I’ve done it, I’ve beaten pretty much everyone you put in front of me. Yeah, maybe I haven’t been as consistent as other players, but I’m still trying to get there.”
Trying. Really, that’s all anyone’s ever wanted from him.
Another wrinkle to this new, motivated, eloquent version of Nick is he’s able to reflect on what happened before.
The Australian has a notorious history with the media, often claiming he’s been treated unfairly in the past. He spoke about that in Montreal too.
“Look, I don’t care if people don’t like me and don’t like the style of tennis I play. I understand that. It’s more, the beginning of my career, almost painting an image that completely wasn’t me at all based on what I was doing on the tennis court,” said Kyrgios.
“None of you people understand what that’s like, when people would just literally paint an image of how you are as a general human 95 per cent of the time, but you’re only seeing me on the tennis court for two per cent of my life.”
How he is on and off the court are not the same, he explained. “I’m a strong believer you have to be two completely different people to be a successful athlete. You can’t be a super nice guy, a generous guy all the time on the court, otherwise I’d be terrible at the game.”
It’s a valid point – Nadal and Roger Federer aren’t exactly kind to their opponents during matches. They have crushed their opponents’ souls when it comes to score lines, then immediately smiled and told their foes they’ll surely be winning titles in the future.
“Tennis players have to be selfish. You have to walk around like you’re the best player in the world. You have to have that mentality. When I was getting angry or smashing racquets, it was like, this guy must be like this off the court. Where is that connection exactly?” Kyrgios asked.
“That was hard for me to shake.”
With the Cincinnatti Masters upon us, followed by the US Open, Kyrgios’s newfound focus, combined with his ability to hit the ball harder than almost anyone in the world, have him set to be a contender for the final Grand Slam tournament of the year.
Of course you may have noticed the tennis court isn’t the only place where Kyrgios has been a different person. In press conferences, with the media, he’s been open, honest, and interesting to talk to.
So I asked him if he’s enjoying it more – the back and forth with the media. Maybe he doesn’t hate us as much now?
“I couldn’t care less. I do this because I have to be here and I don’t want to get fined,” he replied, after his loss to Hubert Hurkacz.
“I don’t really enjoy it, to be honest. I’d rather not be here right now.”
I don’t buy it.
Fines haven’t stopped him from smashing racquets, yelling at umpires, even wearing non-whites onto Wimbledon’s pristine courts. But they’re stopping him from skipping press conferences?
No way. That’s just the emotions after a loss speaking.
He’s having more fun with all of it now.
Yes, with the media too.
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