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Nick Kyrgios may have been eliminated from the Australian Open, but there’s no doubt that he has emerged from the tournament with the universal respect of the tennis world.
By defeating Andreas Seppi in five sets in the fourth round, Kyrgios became the first teenager since Roger Federer in 2001 to reach multiple Grand Slam quarter-finals as a teenager.
But what he encountered on Tuesday night was totally different to what he faced in any of the first four rounds.
Out of the eight men’s quarter-finalists, Kyrgios was by far the least experienced in terms of age, tournament wins and experience. In fact, he was the only one of them not to be ranked in the world’s top eight, having emerged from Roger Federer’s eighth of the draw.
His Rod Laver Arena debut as a senior player was to be against one of the more established statesmen on the ATP World Tour. We’re talking a two-time Grand Slam champion, an Olympic champion and someone who had to endure with the pressure of public expectation until he finally won Wimbledon in 2013.
That person is Andy Murray, who also overcame losing his first four Grand Slam finals before being able to finally break through at the 2012 US Open. There he edged out Novak Djokovic in five dramatic sets to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win a grand slam title.
A lot of expectation had been put on Murray ever since he started playing on the Tour regularly in 2005, at a time when Tim Henman, after having carried Great Britain on his shoulders for too long, was entering the twilight of his own career.
The gulf in experience was brutally exposed on Tuesday night as Murray won in straight sets, progressing through to a semi-final against Rafael Nadal’s quarter-final conqueror, Tomas Berdych.
Despite the straight-sets scoreline, Kyrgios still played well and earned the respect of a nation which in recent years had to endure the troubles encountered by Bernard Tomic, more of which will be recapped later.
The same public expectation that Murray endured as he sought to bring success to a previously success-starved Great Britain will be the same one Nick Kyrgios will endure as he looks to lift Australia out of the Grand Slam doldrums.
Not since Lleyton Hewitt won Wimbledon in 2002 has any Australian man achieved the ultimate success, while it is just over three years since Samantha Stosur won the 2011 US Open at the expense of Serena Williams.
In the intervention, Bernard Tomic, who was seen as our next big hope after having won two Grand Slam titles as a junior, has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
He was accused of tanking in a match against Andy Roddick at the 2012 US Open, was forced to retire hurt against Rafael Nadal in the first round of last year’s Australian Open and lost a professional match in just under half an hour when he lost to Jarkko Nieminen in Miami.
But while Tomic appears to be winning back the public’s respect and trust, it’s Nick Kyrgios who everyone can get excited about, and after his performance at the Australian Open where he became the first male local quarter-finalist since Lleyton Hewitt a decade ago, he will rise up to 35th in the world, a new career high.
While he is winning praise around the world for his performances, which also included defeating Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, it’s his attitude which requires cleaning up after many times letting his frustrations get the better of him.
At the US Open last year, he was just one indiscretion away from losing his match against Mikhail Youzhny in the first round, but still won in four sets before losing in the third round to Tommy Robredo under the Arthur Ashe Stadium lights.
And against Andreas Seppi here the Hisense Arena crowd grew restless after he dropped the opening two sets, only for him to lift his game as he came from two sets down to win.
If he can continue to build on his performances from the Australian Open, there is every chance that he will be seeded at Roland Garros, and then Wimbledon, which would mean he will avoid the big names in the early rounds.
By contrast, Samantha Stosur continues to struggle under the weight of public expectation at home and it again became a topic of discussion after she lost to Coco Vandeweghe in the second round of the Australian Open.
In fact, the Queenslander has never been past the fourth round of the Australian Open and despite all the lessons learnt from her early exits – and the fact she will be 31 by next year’s Open – it appears that hoodoo won’t end anytime soon.
But in the meantime, after what he has achieved over the last seven months, Australia has every reason to be excited about the future prospects of Nick Kyrgios and the potential damage he can continue to cause at future major tournaments.
All of us are now waiting to see what he can do at Roland Garros in May.
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