He cursed, he had self-destructive soliloquies, he beat dreamy winners and he made inexplicable mistakes: Nick Kyrgios was also at the start of the US Open…Nick Kyrgios. But Roger Federer is now also surprised by the highly talented Australian’s escapades.
The New York audience is known for its preference for the extraordinary. Nowhere else in the felt ball universe do they love the show as much as in the glistening spotlight of Flushing Meadows. This starts with the fact that dancing spectators in the stands are nothing special – and ends with the fact that they sometimes cheer for the professionals on the biggest of all tennis stages like the football fans in this country cheering for their heroes on the grass court.
They should actually love someone like Nick Kyrgios, that ingenious ball virtuoso. Actually. But the 23-year-old also has this other, almost masochistic side. When it shows up, the 1.93 m slaks with the ear studs turn into a walking powder keg with self-destruction. Then he seems listless, condescending – simply boundlessly arrogant. And they don’t like that at all here.
The analytical psychologists among the spectators will have had their true joy at the first-round appearance of the belligerent Australian at the US Open on Tuesday. Kyrgios was once again out of line. Or as critics say: He was himself. After winning the first set against Radu Albot (Moldova) the misery began.
Kyrgios obviously suffered from the great heat. Like everyone else on this extreme day with temperatures of 42 degrees Celsius. But unlike his colleagues, the 30th World Ranking gave vent to his displeasure with drastic words. “I’m fucked, my legs are fucked. I’m cooked, I’m fucking done. I can’t play,” he shouted well audibly during the second round in the direction of his speaker.
Which, translated from Kyrgios’s, means: “I’m annoyed, my legs don’t want any more. I’m burning up, I’m totally exhausted, I can’t play.”
Kyrgios, the man of extremes, then did, but sometimes exaggerated it in the newly opened Louis Armstrong Stadium with his magic shots – and in one phase was so listless again that he let a blow from Albot just happen. “I need these gimmicks to relax,” said the Davis Cup player after the night session, which he won 7:5, 2:6, 6:4, 6:2.
Nevertheless, a bitter aftertaste remained. As often with him – unfortunately! Even Roger Federer, the possible opponent of Kyrgios in the third round, was asked for his opinion on the “enfant terrible”. And the maestro even sees parallels in terms of playfulness. “In a way, we need the fun, the stop ball. We need the change. But he takes it to the next level,” Federer praised the Tweener specialist.
But completely the Grand Slam record champion did not want to defend the apparently difficult to educate then nevertheless. Federer made no secret of the fact that he was already a little surprised that the 23-year-old had not yet matured. “Normally you calm down a bit when your teenage years are over,” said Federer, “but for him it still seems to become more extreme. Which is interesting.”
However, Federer, formerly an explosive player himself, does not intend to take Kyrgios aside and give him some wise advice. “Deep down inside he himself knows what he has to do,” said the Swiss about the impetuous hardhitter from Canberra with his second home in the Bahamas. Let’s hope it’s like this…!!!!