Nick Kyrgios cupped his ear at the end as if to say “I can’t hear you”. The Australian, in the Wimbledon quarter-final for only the second time, took a smidgeon over three hours and five sets to beat American Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 4-6, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 2-6 and the crowd, pleased that he was still rattling cages in the draw, responded by bringing the noise up a notch.
They had come to watch a time bomb go off on centre court and instead got poise, power, concentration and graft. Yes, it was the same Kyrgios, the arch disrupter ranked 40 in the world proving to be a personality chameleon, having lit up his previous profanity and accusation-laden match against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
“It wasn’t anywhere near my best performance and the crowd were super, it was a pleasure stepping out here again,” said Kyrgios wearing red Jordans and a red hat in breach of the dress code. Afterwards he was asked about it and replied, “because I do what I want. I just like wearing my Jordans”.
The trainer was called out several times to treat the winner’s shoulder in the early stages of the match as he grimaced his way through the first and second sets. Relying heavily on his powerful serving game he was winning 92 per cent of the points on his first serve.
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But on occasion, Kyrgios was made to look vulnerable and he only intermittently found the fiery spark that can take his game to a different level. There was grind involved and an awareness that it was essential to win him the match.
“You kind of know how talented he is, but you don’t really know, like, you know, when it’s going to come out of him,” said Nakashima.
A lethargic service game at the end of the first set gave Nakashima the first set 6-4, after Kyrgios had been spotted practising underarm serves in the warm-up. He threw one in at 4-4 in the first set but settled into a largely controversy-free outing.
In the second set, he hit a needless tweener because he can and won the point but lost the game. However, he levelled out on sets 1-1. The third was when the physio arrived with the magic cream and kneaded it into the Australian’s right shoulder. That set went to a tiebreak with the sore arm serving [and] shaking the 20-year-old from San Diego 7-2 for the set.
That appeared to trigger a mild slump in the Kyrgios first serve which fell from a 92 per cent to 68 per cent win rate. It allowed Nakashima the break and with Kyrgios appearing to throw the last game of the set, following it up with a rant at the changeover aimed at his players’ box, thoughts turned to a possible unravelling.
Then, having defied the stereotype he had created, he brought it to life again. But just for a moment, when he turned on the umpire over a challenge. Within a minute he had broken Nakashima. He had found an enemy. He then did it again for 4-1 before guiding the match to a 6-2 end.
“It was a really good mental performance today. I think I’m enjoying the battle a bit more,” said Kyrgios. “Look, there was a time where I was having to be forced out of a pub at 4am to play Nadal second round. My agent had to come get me out of a pub at 4am before I played my match on centre court Wimbledon. I’ve come a long way, that’s for sure.”
Shoulder pain
The 27-year-old added that the shoulder pain he endured is not serious and more a consequence of the amount of tennis he has played in recent weeks.
“I woke up after Tsitsipas and had some shoulder pain,” said Kyrgios. “I’ve played so much tennis in the last month-and-a-half, so I almost knew that it was time for my body to start feeling some niggles. I think that’s normal.
“At this time in the event, I don’t think anyone is feeling 100 per cent. Obviously Rafa, you see him dealing with something niggling all the time … Mentally I feel like I just deal with these things a lot better now.”
