Nick Kyrgios reserved his most devastating serve at Wimbledon for Aussie tennis legends with a “sick obsession for tearing me down.”
On the way to his first Grand Slam final, the enfant terrible has been involved in rows over spitting, made the acquaintance of umpires and line judges, engaged Stefanos Tsitsipas in a slanging match and enjoyed a semi-final walkover when Rafa Nadal cried off through injury.
And Kyrgios, who could start an argument with the speaking clock, cheerfully cast himself as “the outcast of the Australian players.” In a sporting nation built on the values of the great outdoors, maybe the irrepressible showman from Canberra should stay in a bit more often. But give him credit: When Kyrgios, 27, bears a grudge, he doesn't stand on ceremony. No messing about, straight for the jugular.
So when he was asked if he had dared to dream about joining the likes of Rod Laver, John Newcombe and Pat Cash in the penal colony's pantheon of champions in SW19, Kyrgios seized his chance.
“The greats of Australian tennis haven't always been the nicest to me personally,” he sneered. “They haven't always been supportive. They haven't been supportive these last two weeks, so it's hard for me to read things that they say about me. For instance, when I saw Ash Barty in the final of the Australian Open, I was nothing but happy. I would never say a bad word about an Australian making a final, but that's just me.
“And the only great that's ever been supportive of me the whole time has been Lleyton Hewitt. He's our Davis Cup captain, and he kind of knows that I do my own thing. I'm definitely the outcast of the Australian players. He knows to kind of keep his distance and just let me do me. He just sends me a message here or there, 'Well done, keep going' - that's literally it.
“It's pretty sad because I don't get any support from any of the other Australian tennis players, the male side. Not the (current) players, but the past greats. It's weird they just have like a sick obsession with tearing me down for some reason. I just don't know whether they don't like me or they're, like, afraid - I don't know what it is. But it sucks, because if it was roles reversed, I'd be pumped. I'd be stoked. I'd be having a pint watching going nuts. So I don't know... Shout-out to Lleyton, I guess.”
By his own admission, Kyrgios has endured a love-hate relationship with tennis, which has taken him to the darkest corners of his soul in the past, but a Wimbledon final is the undoubted high-water mark of a career which announced itself eight years ago, when he knocked out Nadal here.
He admitted: “I don't know if it's going to change. There's definitely times where I hate this sport, but there are times where I think I'm one of the most competitive people I've ever met – and I've met a lot of people.
"Whether it's playing my Nintendo, whether it's playing basketball, whether it's anything, I'm so competitive. Yeah, I love tennis, but I just love going up against someone, and I love just the winning and losing aspect of sport in general. So I don't know if that will ever change.
“One thing for sure, whether I win or lose on Sunday, is that I'm going to be happy. It's such a great achievement that I thought I'd never be a part of. Especially at 27, I feel this is, like, for me, I thought it was the later stages of my career. But I just never thought it would be right here.
“I'm just going to go out there and enjoy the moment. Since I was born, only eight people have ever won this title - eight people – so I'm just going to give it my best shot.”
