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Rather than genuine tanking, Nick Kyrgios’ shall we say ‘unenthusiastic’ attempts to return serve against Richard Gasquet last night strike me as simply the latest entry on what has been a long rap sheet of undisciplined behaviour at Wimbledon.
In the third game of the second set, it’s pretty clear Kyrgios was not putting his usual effort into returning Gasquet’s serves. His returns were shallow efforts, flying low into the net.
More:
Nick Kyrgios furiously denies tanking allegations
WATCH KYRGIOS’ ACTIONS IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE, AND LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION
What’s more telling is the lack of Kyrgios’ characteristic frustration at these mistakes – from watching Kyrgios, you get the feeling that if these were more genuine errors he’d be a bit more reactive to them.
Still, while many people including the commentators were quick to label Kyrgios a tanker, that sort of explanation just doesn’t make sense to me.
He wouldn’t be the first tennis player to lose a game without putting his best foot forward (and wouldn’t be the last either), but to throw what was only the third game of the set after a competitive effort in the first would be a bit bizarre.
If it was late in the set and he was well down, sure, but that early on? It doesn’t make a great deal of sense, strategically speaking.
The much better fitting explanation is really the same one we’ve been look at all tournament long, that while Kyrgios is a supremely talented player, he is still very much undisciplined.
Bouncing his rackets, confronting the fans, and audibly letting off steam during matches – Kyrgios has taken the title of Australia’s tennis bad boy, or is at least fighting tooth and nail with Bernard Tomic for it.
He’s repeatedly come under attack in the media for these actions during the tournament, though I think that most would agree the criticism has been a bit excessive. After all, the world is not exactly full of immaculately mature 20-year-olds.
Really, it shows an insight into the Australian sporting culture – we are very quick to build up, and we are very quick to tear down.
After all, what is Kyrgios’ bad behaviour if not – in part, at least – a reaction to the immense praise he was given by the Australian public when he first burst onto the scene?
I find it ironic, really, that as a group we have raised a teenage athlete to the level of a god, and then we snigger and chide him when he stars to act a little god-like.
We dump people like Kyrgios into that ever-so-broad category of ‘unAustralian’ in their actions, a label which conveniently changes in definition pretty much however you’d like it to.
It leads to farcical things like Dawn Fraser’s comments earlier today that Krygios and Tomic should “go back where their parents came from”.
“If they don’t like it, go back to where their fathers or their parents came from. We don’t need them here in this country if they act like that.”
Insensitive and frankly idiotic suggestions like this (deport young adults for bad behaviour? really?) just fuel the fire. What does it really mean to be unAustralian though?
You only had to be keeping an eye on social media last night to know. Within the space of a half hour, Kyrgios’ popularity went from its lowest point – his badly dropping the second set – to its highest – his hard-fought victory in the third.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, our desires are pretty simple. We want to see our sportspeople behave well, be humble, sure, sure, but more than that – much more than that – we just want to see them winning.
Kyrgios can kill two birds with one stone here. After all, it seems to be his lack of discipline that holds him back from genuine superstardom more than anything.
Improve the disclipline, start winning – really winning – and the universal love will flow.