HOW BAD IS NICK KYRGIOS BY RICHARD EVANS FOR 10SBALLS_COM

Written by: Staff on 29th August 2015

Former champion Ilie Nastase wears uniform on Centre Court prior to fourth round action during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 06 July 2015. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

Photo by @adndeportes via Instagram.

How Bad is Nick Kyrgios by Richard Evans

There are some people – sports stars prominent amongst them – who defy definition. We are currently in a situation where a 20-year-old Australian player called Nick Kyrgios is struggling to combine an outrageous talent with a combustible and highly emotional temperament that frequently makes him look like a rather unpleasant character.

Is he? Was John McEnroe? Ilie Nastase? I was ridiculed by a reviewer in the New York Times in 1982 for suggesting in my book “A Rage for Perfection” that McEnroe had a brain. I think he has gone on to prove that he does.

My book on Nastase was a much easier sell. “Nasty” as the world called him was not generally seen as particularly nasty – more of a crazy clown from Romania who did a lot of unacceptable things but made people laugh – a talent that remained beyond McEnroe as a young player. So somehow Ilie was able to deflect people’s attention away from his darker side which resulted in him saying things that might possibly make young Kyrgios blush.

Ilie has been a loyal friend of mine for forty years so I don’t want to drag up too many unhappy moments but there was an instance at a WTT match in San Francisco when a suggestion he made to the opposition’s owner – amply demonstrated with a thrust of his racket handle – was certainly beyond any color of pale you want to talk about.

But, if Nastase could be lewd and offensive, he was always one of the most generous people you could ever wish to meet and now, I am told, is doing a good job as a Senator in the Romanian parliament.

We all know how McEnroe turned out and there are scores of people in this world who have benefited hugely from his generosity while millions have enjoyed his frequently self-deprecatory humour – the humour he could never reveal while winning major titles – during his commentating stints with just about every television network you’ve ever heard of.

McEnroe and Nastase are extraordinarily complicated and multi-layered characters who resist all attempts to stamp them with simplistic labels like ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

“#kyrgios #defeated #rogerscup #montreal (Getty)” – Photo by @tennis_phil via Instagram.

I suspect it will remain that way with Kyrgios. What he said while playing Stan Wawrinka at the Rogers Cup in Montreal was totally inexcusable, not simply because it was mean and vulgar, but because it dragged a young female player into a confrontation on a tennis court that had nothing to do with her. Even the fact that Wawrinka had made some less than kind remarks about Kyrgios when they played at the Aegon Championships at the Queen’s Club before Wimbledon did not excuse the ugliness of Nick’s remark.

So should we throw him out? Should the ATP impose the maximum ban of three years on this young man who is obviously not in control of his emotions? No, of course, not. As I write he has been fined $10,000 and severely admonished by the ATP – an organization that has been doing everything to support him as he struggles with his image.

There could be further sanctions and he probably deserves a few weeks suspension just to ram home the level of disgust that his remarks caused in the game that offers him his living. But his friends and advisers, who now include Lleyton Hewitt, should try to offer wise counsel as well as acting as a barrier to the cacophony of abuse that is being levelled at him from the tabloid press and the internet.

McEnroe and Nastase got it in the neck from the media in their day but the 24 hour intensity of global social media has added huge wattage to the spotlight of public scrutiny and you need to be strong to survive it. Let no one imagine the relentless criticism won’t affect Kyrgios. He is good at bravado but, as a clearly emotional human being, this will hit him hard.

Tennis does not want to lose him. He has the potential to become a serial Grand Slam champion while creating a huge amount of interest as he does so. But he does need to calm down and grow up. That could be said of millions of 20-year-olds with but a sliver of his talent. And talent can be a burden. It can push you into a spotlight that you don’t really know how to handle, leading to the kind of disastrous results we have seen this month.

So don’t let’s get carried away. Media hysteria is transitory; time heals and people do grow. It may seem ludicrous to imagine Nick Kyrgios joining Senator John Alexander in the Australian Parliament in twenty years but Marat Safin, no angel himself, took a lot less time than that to get himself elected to the Duma in Moscow.

And if Nick wants some advice on how to handle a temperament that keeps running away with you, splattering friend and foe alike with cringe-worthy utterances, he should talk to Senator Nastase. He knows.

Topics: 10sballs_com, Atp World Tour, Ilie Nastase, Montreal, Nick Kyrgios, Richard Evans, Rogers Cup tennis, Sports, Stan Wawrinka, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

August 14, 2015 at 11:40 pm

HOW BAD IS @NickKyrgios BY @Ringham7 FOR @10sBalls_com — http://t.co/RGu6GMIlGC @rogerscup #RogersCup #tennis #Montreal #Wawrinka #Kyrgios
ParentingAces says:

August 15, 2015 at 9:02 am

Richard Evans offers another perspective on Nick Kyrgios’s behavior issues . . . http://t.co/M85dshv5FS
10sBalls_com says:

August 17, 2015 at 7:33 pm

HOW BAD IS @NickKyrgios BY RICHARD EVANS FOR @10sBalls_com- http://t.co/RGu6GMIlGC @Ringham7 #NickKyrgios #Wawrinka #Kyrgios #TennisNews
10sBalls_com says:

August 22, 2015 at 12:36 pm

HOW BAD IS @NickKyrgios BY @Ringham7 FOR @10sBalls_com- http://t.co/RGu6GMIlGC #tennis #Kyrgios #Wawrinka