Nick Kyrgios: The corporate athlete

I agree with you I actually think they're not mature enough to respect the fact they're playing for they're country particularly the way he played when playing against Richard Gasquet in Wimbledon. He was in the position to level at 2 sets each and it looked like he just quit trying and even Richard Gasquet was curious at what he was doing. I was disgusted at his behaviour on the day and having someone like Kyrgios and Tomic with the kind of attitude they've had I don't think they should be included in the team . It took Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth to rescue Australia into a winning position to go into the next round in the Davis Cup.

I was in Darwin and it wasn't just when Nick was playing that he disrespected his team mates, the green and gold - and the thousands of fans who were there. It went on pretty much all weekend. Sitting on the sidelines on Saturday headphones on listening to music while the doubles were being played. Tossing and catching food in his mouth repeatedly - also while the doubles were on, and point blank refusing to even pause for eager fans - children mainly - to take photos while he slouched with a permanent scowl to and fro the court on Sunday to the player area. All just childish. Yes he's only 20, and I can forgive a lot because of that - but not all of it. I just hope that the roars of support and absolute passion shown by the crowd for the efforts of Lleyton and Sam meant something to Nick. He too can have that - just by 'showing up'.

Exactly...many top players don't care about davis cup. Many top players don't even participate. Kyrgios is our best player making the final 16 at wimbledon, how many other honourable australians did that? The answer is none. We are lucky he would compete for us, many don't. All the top guns usually don't compete in davis cup until the finals rounds or not at all. Tennis is about grand slams and they are his income and legacy. Tennis players lose sometimes, especially when they are young and haven't mastered their consistency yet. Get off the Witch hunt and support an athlete who is literally our best. Him and Tomic, while young and inconsistent are our top 2 ranked players

Some of these guys never ever want, or aspire to, Davis/Federation Cup representation, or to be role models. It is fundamentally an individual sport, with occasional national representations. Some of the scandal of this story comes from TA financing/supporting young people they see as future 'elite players', and who then just choose to be solitary/professional players. If TA wants to manage it's affairs in a different way, perhaps it could put some soft handcuffs on these 'funding recipients', namely, we're funding you because we believe in you and and hope you to be a Davis/Fed Cup player if selected in time. When/if selected and you're fit, you're/been a top 100 player with $2 million in career prizemoney (not earnings from sponsorships), and you choose not to play Davis/Fed Cup, we want a refund of (some of) the financial support we offered and you accepted in the interests of supporting future elite potential. Maybe TA makes enough and gets enough government funding so the refund is a nuisance, but some youngsters won't pass the early 'loyalty' tests leaving the funding kitty for others (possibly not the best up and comers though)

Lots of successful athletes have had to put up with media tall poppy syndrome. Honestly what the media is doing in Australia is nothing compared to the vitriol Andy Murray, Novak, Mark Philippoussis, Sania Mirza, Lleyton Hewitt et al. Andy Murray used to be bashed from pillar to post even though he was well entrenched in the top 4, apparently the media thinks getting to the top 4 is an easy task and winning a GS is a mere formality. Aussie Mark delivered two of the greatest tennis matches in Australian history, the final against Pioline on clay in Nice '99 and the famous one pectoral victory against current world no1 JC Ferrerro. Sania Mirza has a fatwa against her, even after winning Wimbledon so the media inspired frenzy is basically shared by the ignorant. They can incite the mob but all its doing is building a division between those who know tennis and those who don't. Nick is well supported by all tennis players, a close, personal friend of Roger Federer and beloved by fans who go so far as to paint their face with vegemite. To me the media is trying to embarrass Australians of lesser intelligence.

I was there, in joy (sets 1 and 2), disbelief and disappointed shock (sets 3 and 4), and exhiliaration and overjoyed in set 5. Absolutely right up there Kazblah... he was under pressure before the match, with media alluding to "does he have the ticker, this 'selfish' underperformer", then the injury when victory was a mere set of hard work away.... oh here we go, this is what we feared, a giver upperer.... and yet it was all ticker. He spoke to his old man between sets 4 and 5, and I assume the old man said do it for Australia and do it for you.....yes Kazblah, one of the gutsiest performances, under extreme pressure and circumstance, ever on a tennis court

I'd also go so far as to say that the Australian sports loving community has already moved on from Tomic and Kyrgios (evidence? look at how few have commented on this hot topic). And I'm sure that's fine with those boys anyway - they don't want to answer questions about it; they don't aspire to be role models. So perhaps if the media left it (them) alone now, we could choose a small group of passionate lads (young or old) and win the next round v GB. Lleyton and Groth should play in singles and the doubles. Thannassi can grow into the role next year when Lleyton has stepped aside)

This period is a test for Kyrgios and right now he's not coping well with the pressure. But I'm hopeful he'll come through it. As for the Scud, his performance in the Davis Cup final in Melbourne, when he tore his pec up two sets to love and won in five, screaming in pain with every serve, is about the gutsiest thing I've ever seen on a tennis court.

Agree - disrespectful to lump Philippoussis with those two. Australia should be proud of what he gave us, rather than focus on possibly missed potential. We'd love to have a player deliver two Davis Cups nowadays.

Dear Brendan, Mark Phillipoussis won the Davis Cup TWICE, in 1999 and 2003.... on clay (in France) and on grass (melbourne) and in both cases, his was the WINNING match. Don't add the Scud onto the Tomic/Kyrgios diatribe you've generalised with your "While he certainly isn’t the first Australian to venture down this path, time has proven it often shows a lot of potential and minimal success. The likes of Mark Philippoussis and Bernard Tomic spring to mind". Perhaps the Scud could be accused of not committing his full potential in his professional life - but he was a big server first and foremost. He made a Wimbledon final (lost to Sampras) and US Open Final (lost to Pat), plus his TWO Davis Cup victories. In case you also failed to research "Team Australia's" posterboy Pat Rafter's Davis Cup credentials , he won, exactly, NIL Davis Cups. But he's still a tennis legend.

Not sure about why you call him a corporate athlete, as the article doesn't explain what that actually means. Selfish is the angle of this article. Self absorbed and missing a decent slice of perspective is how I describe nick. Corporate athlete because he is already making a brand of himself before actually achieving anything noteworthy? If so then I agree there. Similar to when Nike sponsored Bernie to be one of the faces at the us open campaign. Tennis sponsors are waiting for the next young star to align with but currently the top stars are all late twenties or older and require top dollar price tags. Nick should focus on winning tournaments when the crowds and the viewer numbers are low, instead of showing up for a couple wins in each grand slam

Absolute rubbish. He wasn't up to it and didn't want to be there. That's being honest. Tomich and Kyrgios should just concentrate on their singles careers for a few years and forget about Davis Cup. Many top players only play Davis Cup when older or they're peaking. Davis Cup is no big deal though nice to win occasionally. It means zilch. Everyone knows where the top players come from and Grand Slams are the prestige for tennis. The also rans rave about Davis Cup as it is their chance to shine.

like a few of our other stars.. believed his own press too much.. not sure about the excuse of youth etc.. bit of a cop out.. as is being in the public eye.. anybody who aims for the elite levels in sport, especially like golf, tennis, soccer etc, will then know they will be on the world stage if they make it to the top.. it is not like that scenario just magical appeared overnight..

I wouldn't label him an adult. Adults don't behave like this.

im wouldn't label him a corporate athlete