Nick Kyrgios has Australia feeling uncomfortable for a very different reason

AUSTRALIA is having to dig itself out of a hole after a confronting Nick Kyrgios truth revealed itself to the world on Friday night.

Playing with fire.

COMMENT

THERE are plenty of Nick Kyrgios haters in Australia — and with legitimate reason.

The tennis star has given people more than enough ammunition since hitting the pro circuit to strike him from their Christmas card list. He’s abused umpires, clashed with fans, quit matches for no reason and even sledged Stan Wawrinka about his girlfriend.

All of these black eyes have smeared Kyrgios’s reputation and built a compelling case as to why any rational human being would rather chew glass than say a positive word said about the 22-year-old.

For a while, I was on their side. I could put up with the on-court temper tantrums — that I understand — but after wanting desperately to warm to him the disrespect shown too often by a man whose position many can only dream of being in gradually became too much.

I came to the Australian Open no huge fan of Kyrgios, but after sitting through his 7-6 4-6 7-6 7-6 win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday night, I was faced with a truth I could no longer deny. I was powerless to stop myself rooting for the Aussie — and so was everyone else.

Even Jo was feeling the love.

Having watched all three of Kyrgios’s matches at Melbourne Park this week — and a couple of his practice sessions to boot — I’ve become one of the converted.

Seeing him unleash a 220km/h bomb down the T or a forehand winner down the line from just metres away captivates you in a way that makes it impossible not to be drawn in.

Impressive too is his devotion to playing with sick children on the training court, the extra time he spends signing autographs and taking photos with fans and the honest way he’s answered questions at press conferences during the year’s first major.

The rest of the crowd at Rod Laver Arena was also under his spell. For someone who’s so polarising, the rousing affection on display after he won crucial points was next level. The roar when he came back from what looked like an inevitable setback at 2-5 down in the fourth set tiebreak to claim the match would have gone close to literally raising the roof, had it been closed.

Australia is falling back in love with Nick Kyrgios #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/Q5vR25DhLx

— James Matthey (@jamesmatthey) January 19, 2018

Everyone else in the Victorian capital must have been drinking the same Kyrgios Kool-Aid this week.

It helped that the third round match was of a quality so high it may well go down as the match of the tournament. Both players performed at a level that gave the ticket holders value for money and then some.

Congratulations @NickKyrgios on an excellent match against the always tough @tsonga7. Brilliant shot making and competing! A pleasure to watch #AusOpen

— Pat Cash (@TheRealPatCash) January 19, 2018

I loved him when he was a brat, but Kyrgios is going to win this nation over very quickly with matches like that & post-match interviews like that.

A lot of Lleyton Hewitt about the way he might change the publics perception of who he is

— Adam McGrath (@AdamMcGrath89) January 19, 2018

Crowd in #MCA all watching #RLA on their phone, can hear the roars inside here as #Kyrgios wins. @7tennis @AustralianOpen

— Todd Woodbridge (@toddwoodbridge) January 19, 2018

So often we’ve heard Kyrgios has the talent but not the attitude to make it to the top of the men’s tennis tree. I’m almost ashamed to say it but if he can play like he did on Friday night for the rest of his career then he can say whatever the hell he likes, whenever he likes. His tennis was just that good and his showmanship that compelling.

What was most impressive — and what no doubt helped drag Australia along for the ride — was Kyrgios once again showed fight we haven’t always seen.

His new-found maturity was on show in his second round match against Viktor Troicki when he kept a cool head despite a mountain of distractions that included an interrupting spectator, a helicopter and technical difficulties. But was that a flash in the pan or is he really made of sterner stuff in 2018?

Shooter!

It’s too early to say, but he went a way towards answering that question in style against Tsonga. A disappointing second set where he swore at his box and beat himself up looked like the beginning of a vintage Kyrgios implosion.

He lost the set and looked a defeated man sitting on his chair, showing no hint of emotion even as the crowd went wild following the appearance of Hollywood star Will Smith on the big screen.

He could have folded like he did against Andreas Seppi at last year’s Australian Open, where he lost in five sets after going two love up. But he held his nerve, drawing on the infectious energy of the crowd to push him over the line.

Serving at 1-2 down in the fourth set, Kyrgios hit a scorching forehand winner to go to deuce, letting out an aggressive scream and gesturing to his box and everyone else to get up in support. He did the same when he won the first point of the next game, and again when he went up 40-30 with Tsonga leading five games to four.

Love was in the air.

If you were a hater before you took your seat you sure as hell weren’t when you left. It wasn’t possible.

If rationality resumes on Monday morning and you go back to remembering all the times Kyrgios has wronged you in the past — fine — but under the bright lights of the biggest stage in Melbourne, there’s no doubt every Australian was singing from the same song sheet.

And no matter how much I wanted to deny it — I was among them.