- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Nick Kyrgios may be hot headed and aggressive on the court, but in cyberspace he’s surprisingly calm, and measured with his responses.
Take the Tex Walker incident this week for example. Unlike Shane Warne – who called out Nick for his behaviour but proceeded to offer advice on how to resurrect his public profile – Walker just gave Nick a serve with three notable words. Galoot, flog and peanut.
When is this absolute Galoot going to learn. What a dead set flog!! Just suspend the peanut!! http://t.co/rULDU8SPPz
— Tex Walker (@texwalker13) October 13, 2015
Once the media ran with the twitter comment and the ‘story’ gained traction, Kyrgios replied with a simple “I don’t even know who Tex Walker is..lol”. The brilliance of this response was that it was interpreted in so many different ways. Like all online comments there’s no tone to gauge from, so the reader thinks ‘is he taking the piss? does he genuinely not know who Tex Walker is or is he claiming that Tex is a nobody and has no profile outside AFL markets and indeed the world sporting landscape?
Former Adelaide Crows teammate Patrick Dangerfield appeared to interpret the comment in the third instance and highlighted the charity work Tex had done to emphasise that Tex is a good bloke, insinuating that Kyrgios isn’t.
He is the bloke who raised $66,000 for the Leukaemia Foundation shaving his head… Seems like a good bloke to me. https://t.co/ggTmh1trBS
— Patrick Dangerfield (@dangerfield32) October 14, 2015
A few minutes later, Kyrgios returned Dangerfield’s volley with an insight into his own charity endeavours and a nice dig at the charity competition Paddy had started by bringing it up.
Paddy then tries to save face with a more jovial response and then Nick, knowing he’d won the set, replies with some compliments to which Paddy admits he can’t go anywhere with and the conversation ends.
@NickKyrgios didn't say it was nick you just didn't know who Tex is so I was filling you in. He also plays footy and wear no. 13.
— Patrick Dangerfield (@dangerfield32) October 14, 2015
@NickKyrgios sending a nice tweet now makes it impossible for me to send smart ass remark. Goodluck in your next tournament. #deuce
— Patrick Dangerfield (@dangerfield32) October 14, 2015
It would have been easy for Kyrgios to have a blatant (as apposed to subtle) personal crack at Tex, after all when you get called a flog by another athlete it must be tempting. But Kyrgios is a lot smarter and mature than people give him credit for. He knew that’s exactly what Tex wanted him to do to further emphasise his point.
Kyrgios’ handling of social media is actually a good lesson for other athletes. While he might criticise the media as an entity I’ve never seen him have a personal crack at individuals or journalists like David Warner did with Robert Craddock and Malcolm Conn.
As Kyrgios’ attitude and code violations continue to rile the public it’s worth remembering that one of his major endorsements this year was through ‘Beats’ the headphone company with an advertisement entitled ‘play your own rules’ while highlighting Nick’s bad boy image.
Playing up to that image doesn’t excuse his constant swearing on court and the incident with San Wawrinka, but it has proven that, tennis, just like WWE is all about entertainment. People may complain about it but they continue to tune in, just like they tune in to his twitter banter.
Whether it’s aces or races, try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp for great odds and a great punting experience. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.