There has long been a circus surrounding Nick Kyrgios. As he prepared to leave the court at Aorangi Park for practice yesterday, a Netflix documentary camera crew were jostling for the best position to film him, in turn being filmed by another crew from the BBC.
As the Australian strode purposefully forward, he was repeatedly asked if he had any comment on the assault charge looming over him. His only response was to smile.
His summons to an Australia court is the latest twist in the Kyrgios saga. What today brings on Court No1 is anyone’s guess.
In his opening match, against Britain’s Paul Jubb, he berated an elderly line judge and spat in the direction of a bunch of fans he said had been abusing him all match.
A round later, he barely said boo to a goose, before sparking into an on and off-court tirade in his subsequent match against Stefanos Tsitsipas, with the Greek branding him an “evil bully”.
In his fourth-round win, he needed repeated treatment on his right shoulder as he made his way past Brandon Nakashima, before defying Wimbledon’s strict dress code by putting on his red and white Air Jordans and a red cap to leave court.
In the aftermath, and amid all the hoo-ha flying around him at any given moment, he suggested there was no such thing as bad publicity. On reflection, following events of the past 24 hours, he now may feel differently.
And yet he has this propensity to thrive in the face of adversity. His opponent today, Cristian Garin, the world No43, is the sort of mid-ranked player against whom Kyrgios has struggled. Such adversity might just give him the required pick-me-up.
The carrot potentially dangling in the last four is Rafael Nadal, who Kyrgios beat in his last Wimbledon run of any note, on an impressive debut in 2014.
He clearly has the game to trouble Nadal again should it come to that, as long as he can keep the histrionics in check.
His countryman, Mark Philippoussis, was in Tsitsipas’s box for the third-round match and got to see Kyrgios up close.
“We all know he has the game to go all the way, that’s never been the issue,” said Philippoussis. “He’s got the game to win it, he’s got his best chance for a long time.
“As it gets to a later stage, it’s more about the mental than physical part. He has got to stay focused and he’s got an opportunity. But, at the same time, it’s tougher to play guys when you expect to win.”
Deciding the outcome of his match with Garin might be less about the tennis and more about what is going on inside his head — and Philippoussis’s advice is simple: to shut up for three to five sets of tennis.
“Some of the bits are good,” said the two-time Davis Cup winner. “I don’t mind people getting upset at a line call or questioning something or smashing a racket, that’s going to get it out of your system, but I think it’s the constant stuff.
“Kids are watching, they can hear things, they’ve got microphones on court. You’ve got to think about that.”
