Newsmaker: Nick Kyrgios

The controversial tennis player made headlines this week after being fined for his behaviour at the Shanghai Masters. It’s not the first time his on-court behaviour has offended.

Kagan McLeod for The National

As a professional tennis player, you know that you have set new standards of unprofessional behaviour when even John McEnroe, arch bad boy of the sport during the 1970s and 80s, tells you to buck up your ideas.

This week, the 21-year-old Australian Nick Kyrgios, ranked No 14 in the world, was fined a total of US$41,500 (Dh152,419) and banned from tournament tennis for eight weeks for his behaviour during the recent Shanghai Masters.

In the process, he became the first player to be suspended for his behaviour since McEnroe was punished for outbursts during the US Open in 1987.

The Association of Tennis Professionals said he had “committed the player major offence ‘Conduct Contrary to the Integrity of the Game,’” and had also been punished for violating the “Best Efforts” provision in its code, “verbal abuse of a spectator” and “unsportsmanlike conduct”.

After a first-round victory in Shanghai, in which he easily beat world No 29 Sam Querrey, Kyrgios announced he had been “a bit bored at times” during the match. In the second round, in which he was defeated by Mischa Zverev, a player ranked 110th in the world (since Shanghai, he has risen to No 68), the boredom was replaced by petulance.

Apparently frustrated, Kyrgios “tanked” – almost giving up, patting his own serves over the net and walking off the court instead of returning his opponent’s balls. He abused spectators who booed him and said: “I don’t owe them anything”.

Far from being contrite, he later added: “If you don’t like it, I didn’t ask you to come watch. Just leave. If you’re so good at giving advice and so good at tennis, why aren’t you as good as me? Why aren’t you on the Tour?”

This undoubtedly talented but troubled player’s behaviour has been so bad that some in the game are starting to ask whether the Tour really needs a player of his temperament. For Kyrgios, success and fame have all happened quickly – perhaps too quickly. And he now appears to be questioning whether he needs the Tour at all.

Nicholas Hilmy Kyrgios was born in Canberra, Australia, on April 27, 1995, the second son of a Greek-immigrant house painter, Giorgios, and computer engineer Norlaila, who was born in Malaysia.

Norlaila is said to have connections to Malaysian royalty. According to a 2014 article in The Sydney Morning Herald she was "born in Malaysia as a princess, but she dropped the title when she moved to Australia with her mother" at the age of 24.

In an interview with Malaysian television in 2014, Norlaila recalled that her youngest son started playing tennis at the age of 6. He had started out as a ballboy, chasing around the court for his elder brother, Christos.

“He was very proud of picking up balls,” his mother recalled. “One day I felt a bit sorry for him. I said: ‘Do you want to have a try?’ and gave him a racquet and a ball.” To her surprise, “he hit it very, very hard – and over the net”.

For a while, it was toss-up between tennis and basketball, but tennis won out. Kyrgios joined a club in Canberra and soon started beating players older than him. It was, said his mother, clear that he was “keen and had the hunger to win”. And then “it all happened so fast”.

In 2010, at the age of 15, Kyrgios won the International Tennis Federation junior championship in Fiji, and during the next three years, he shot up the junior rankings. In January 2013, as the No 1 ITF junior seed, he won the Australian Open junior championship.

The 17-year-old, reported The Australian, was "ready to jump into [the] big time". Within months, he turned professional, and in the past three years, he has rocketed up the pro rankings, climbing from No 843 in February 2013 to No 14 by October this year.

In 2014, Kyrgios found himself really catapulted into the big time, and global headlines, when he caused a sensation by taking one of the biggest scalps in tennis.

That summer, Australia’s former Davis Cup captain John Alexander spoke to ABC television about the great burden of expectation the 19-year-old was carrying as he prepared for his debut at Wimbledon, to which he had been given a wild-card entry. Australians were always hoping for “another Rod Laver, another Ken Rosewall, another John Newcombe,” Alexander said, and “[when] anyone shows their face it’s: ‘This is the one.’” But this time, he said, “it might well be the case”.

On July 1, Kyrgios, then No 144 in the world, beat world No 1 Rafael Nadal to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals. He would progress no farther, but in becoming the first teenager to beat a world No 1 in a Grand Slam since Nadal himself had unseated Roger Federer at the French Open in 2005, he brought himself to the attention of the world.

The young pretender, said The Guardian, had "embroidered the occasion so completely with his free spirit and irresistible power" and was "already the player of the fortnight, maybe … of the year". It hadn't hurt that Kyrgios had pulled off a cheeky, point-winning, between-the-legs return that instantly went viral.

In the commentary box, McEnroe agreed: “We’re watching a young boy turn into a man,” he said. “We have a new star on our hands in the tennis world.” But, as the pressures of fame and fortune appeared increasingly to get to the young man, McEnroe’s praise wouldn’t always be so unstinting.

It was a different story at Wimbledon the following year, when the crowd began to boo Kyrgios’s increasingly erratic behaviour. Swearing, shouting, arguing with the umpire about changing his socks, sulking, muttering “dirty scum” and hurling his racket in the air, Kyrgios ultimately threw away his fourth-round match with Frenchman Richard Gasquet.

By now, he was wearing a statement haircut, large earring and a jangling gold chain around his neck. Kyrgios appeared to be living his delayed difficult teenage years on the world stage, and not coping well with the exposure.

In Montreal last year, he was fined for suggesting on court that his opponent’s girlfriend was romantically involved with another player. At the Australian Open this year, he lost his cool with the umpire, insisting aggressively there was “music playing in the crowd while we are playing”, and crashed out in the third round.

Off-court, however, he seemed happy enough. At the same time, he went public with the news that he was dating his mixed doubles partner, Croatian-born Australian Ajla Tomljanovic.

At the Miami Open this year, he received a warning after losing his temper and powering a ball into the crowd, and at Indian Wells, he announced: “I don’t want to play anymore”. Then, shortly before his return to Wimbledon, he dropped a bombshell that shook even his most ardent fans – and probably his mother, to boot.

“I don’t really like the sport of tennis that much,” he revealed in an interview. “When I was 14, I was all for basketball and I made the decision to play tennis. I got pushed by my parents, and to this day, I can still say I don’t love the sport.” Nevertheless, Kyrgios has taken three titles – all this year.

Last month, Kyrgios retired from his third-round match at the US Open, claiming he had a hip injury, and McEnroe’s patience snapped. “He’s hurt because he’s not training enough,” McEnroe said. “Nick Kyrgios, if you don’t want to be a professional tennis player, do something else.”

Other players have rallied to support what they recognise is a young player in a crisis. This week, world No 2 Andy Murray said he was “not convinced” that fines were the solution to the Australian’s behaviour, and that he needed help. “Sometimes players do need protecting as well,” he said. “It’s not easy being in the spotlight at such a young age and not everybody deals with it as well as some of the guys do.”

Kyrgios was offered a lifeline by the ATP – accept counselling with a sports psychologist for his behavioural issues and his suspension would be reduced. On Tuesday, Tennis Australia said he had agreed. Yet when asked about his participation the following day during a Twitter Q&A, Kyrgios replied: “Probs not”. His goals for 2017, he said, were: “More time off.”

He seems to be serious. Later on Wednesday, it was revealed that Kyrgios had pulled out of the Rotterdam Open in February, so he can instead play in an all-star celebrity basketball game in the United States. Kyrgios, said Rotterdam tournament director Richard Krajicek, “prefers his passion beyond his profession”.

It might be hard to feel sympathy for a wealthy tennis player who seems to work hard to come over as a spoiled brat – for some, the vital statistics are his career winnings of $3.5 million to date and cumulative fines of more than $125,000. But the sad, unusual picture that’s emerging is of a young man who, despite obvious raw talent that could carry him to the very top in tennis, believes he’s trapped in the wrong sport.

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