By Martin Rogers
Fox Sports columnist
It took two minutes before Nick Kyrgios started complaining on Wednesday and surprisingly it took him so long.
Tennis self-proclaimed bad-boy Kyrgios continued his Wimbledon campaign with a straight-set victory over Chile’s Christian Garin in the semifinals. At each stage of the last four journeys, filled with anger, rage, snoring, he asked the question – is it good or bad for tennis?
Tennis and its troublemakers have a long history. Kyrgios is undoubtedly a mischievous man and he likes to be like that, he turns around willingly to argue with almost everyone.
The line judges get angry at him for daring to get out, the umpires listen to him for all the reasons and the tournament referee gets out because he has the last right.
Underarm service, dramatic bows on the stand, sneak peeks and multi-level mind games, most notably featured in the second round by world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas.
If Kyrgios doesn’t get his banana quickly, the ball goes to the boys. If a journalist who dares to raise his hand at a press conference asks them about their actions, there is a risk of a direct confrontation. Along with his girlfriend and trainer, his box is also in a regular verbal firing line.
In his first match in London, Kyrgios spat in the direction of a fan who hit him and was fined $ 10,000 for the attempt. After his 16th round, he claimed that “all fame is good publicity.” A day later, it was revealed that he was accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend in his native Australia last year.
If you are not particularly familiar with Kyrgios and you think he is a very disgusting character, you will not be overwhelmed by the controversy.
Yet the question of tennis is real and timely. Whenever Kyrgios steps on the court, he presents an attractive theater.
For some, it’s a guilty pleasure, but if you’re in one of his matches, try to stop watching it luck. There’s always something going on, and for a game that’s nowhere near popular in the mainstream in the United States, the weight of the watch is golden.
Kyrgios’ game is electric in itself. He has an easy rocket and serve maneuver that includes flawless shot-making and bizarre drop shots. You never know what’s going to happen next. In the third round, he channeled a dope-a-dope trick (his words), tricked rival Brandon Nakashima into realizing he was injured and revived to win the match in five sets.
He is 27 years old and has reached the Grand Slam final for the first time in the semi-final match against Rafael Nadal on Friday. But in many ways, it’s back to a time when people like John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors used to shout and grumble and use the crowd to their advantage.
For the past few decades, the men’s game has been based on the excellence of the greatest men’s trio of all time. Roger Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic are generally considered great sports ambassadors, but for all their brilliance they cannot play with the emotions of an audience like Kyrgios.
You’d think Wimbledon’s humble lawn and humble path might be unsuitable for her, but not so much this year. Kyrgios’s Server Monster is even hotter on the grass, and London’s historically high-class people nowadays are more appreciative of the entertainer, because – with some quality – the bad guys value the price of your ticket.
Kyrgios always has tremendous talent. At the age of 19, he defeated Nadal at Wimbledon, but he failed to keep his initial promise for long. He is currently ranked 40th in limited time because he did not want to spend much time outside Australia.
As always, everyone wants to say something about such characters.
Tsitsipas describes the “bad side” of his personality.
Fellow Australian and former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash also did not back down. Cash told the BBC: “He has been playing tennis, cheating, manipulating, abusing, being aggressive with the umpires, down to the bottom as a lineman.” “It simply came to our notice then. This is a perfect circus. It has now reached the right limit. “
Kyrgios’ response? He’s “happy” that his success is driving people crazy – and he’ll keep doing “what I want”.
He’s a kind of player who leans towards a kind of strong-willed, true love-his-his-or-hate-his personality. You don’t have to watch him for more than a few minutes to form your mind, he should be chosen as a very interesting anti-hero or Machiavellian pantomime villain.
As always, the truth is likely to fall somewhere in the middle, you just have to know two things. Kyrgios’ Wimbledon continues, perhaps to the end.
Good or bad for tennis, the answer is – most likely – both.
Martin Rogers is a Fox Sports columnist and author of the Fox Sports Insider newspaper. OfYou can subscribe to the daily newspaper here,
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