The excitement surrounding the “BH-Gate” with Frenchwoman Alize Cornet had just subsided, when the US Open had its next bizarre excitement on Thursday evening – with scandalous noodle Nick Kyrgios, Roger Federer’s next Grand Slam opponent, in a not insignificant supporting role.
Once again Kyrgios had given Herbert his favourite role in his second round match against the Frenchman Pierre-Hugues, that of the disinterested, loutish, spoiled tennis millionaire, when something unheard of suddenly happened: The dazzling referee Mohamed Lahyani got off the chair at 4:6 and 0:3 and gave a small speech in the direction of Kyrgios, which could certainly be understood as a motivational speech.
“I want to help you. That’s not you on the pitch,” Lahyani said and demanded more effort from the Australian, otherwise there will inevitably be warnings. It was a curious, unique process, but with one curious consequence: the warning of the Swedish referees really worked, Kyrgios turned the match around – and is now allowed to take the test against Federer. “Sorry, that wasn’t coaching,” Kyrgios later said, “he just made me understand that it couldn’t go on like this.”
Lahyani’s intervention, however, caused a lot of head-shaking at the Grand Slam venue, not least at Federer, the coming opponent of Kyrgios: “What he has done is not the job of the referee,” said the maestro obviously angry after his 7:5, 6:4, 6:4 victory over his sometimes even somewhat erratic professional colleague Benoit Paire.
He is certain, however, that something like that “won’t happen again,” Federer said, “certainly not in the next match: Nick will certainly be a little more interested and committed in the matter. The American association USTA, host of the US Open, later made an astounding statement that the referee was worried about the health of Kyrgios and had risen from his chair “because he could communicate with him so better”.
Escapades like in the first one and a half sets, when he let his opponent’s serves pass listlessly and yawned heartily and demonstratively into the camera in some breaks, Kyrgios will hardly afford the Saturday night show against Federer. He will rather be the heavy, dangerous rival he almost always was for the 37-year-old Swiss – Federer won two of three games, most recently in Stuttgart in the spring. Eight out of nine sets went into the tiebreak in the games, it had always been “a tough nut to crack” against Kyrgios, Federer said, “because he undoubtedly has great potential”.
Federer is likely to agree that the courts in Flushing Meadow are exceptionally slow this year, which could neutralise Kyrgios’ explosive play. However, the 20-time Grand Slam Champion has to increase above all himself, he could not convince too much even against Paire.
The best part of the game was the win itself – despite 47 unforced mistakes and only 25 winning strokes. It was difficult, Federer explained, to find a rhythm against Paire, “too imponderable and unstable” was his game. Which goes for Kyrgios, the next opponent. The world champion of unpredictability.