Nick Kyrgios may yet write a new history for himself

Nick Kyrgios’s wrist injury lingers. I’m not entirely sure he’ll be fit for the Australian Open.

Nick Kyrgios makes his return to singles competition at the Brisbane International on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

Nick Kyrgios is like an author who’s made a career out of writing trashy novels. He’s become famous and lined his pockets but you suspect a pinprick of discontent inside the bloke because he knows there’s something deeper and more meaningful in his pen.

Could be wrong about that. Perhaps the big lug couldn’t care less. But the word on Caxton Street is that Kyrgios is launching into a sincere, full-scale assault on the tour. They reckon the 29-year-old has trained his backside off since October. They reckon he’ll throw himself at the sport this year and see where that leaves him. They reckon the renewed commitment is because he knows he can do more than he’s done. They reckon his wrist injury was so serious it could have dispatched him to retirement. They reckon he’s recovered and will have all guns blazing ahead of the Australian Open – but his wrist looked ruinously sore and was heavily strapped in his otherwise meritorious 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-3) loss to giant Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard at the Brisbane International on Tuesday.

Kyrgios winced before and after points, he grimaced at changes of ends, he screwed up his face in obvious discomfort while completing a task as simple as pulling up his socks. “The sharpest pain,” he told his furrow-browed entourage in the second set. All a worry. I’m not entirely sure he’ll be fit for the Australian Open.

Kyrgios supported by fans from the Dundees. Picture: Getty Images

The 203cm Mpetshi Perricard resembled Roald Dahl’s The BFG on a tennis court. His thunderclap serves peaked at 230km/h. It was a game of aces – 36 unreturnables flew past Kyrgios like F1 cars. It was a spooky match in that it was like watching Kyrgios play a younger version of himself.

He’s travelled the globe a thousand times. Luxury flights and accommodation. He’s made $20m in prize money, and probably triple that in endorsements. He’s popular, he fills stadiums, he’s a household name, he’s reached a Wimbledon final. But in the vein of a hotel waiter famously asking this very same question of George Best, while delivering champagne to the Northern Irish footballer’s room and spying Miss World in his bed, where’s it all gone wrong?

He’s underachieved because he’s as talented as any player who ever lived. He can hit shots that perhaps only Roger Federer may attempt after a couple of double-strength piccolos. He has possessed for a decade the best serve in the world – a venomous, deceptive, serpentine delivery he can swing both ways. His forehand is nearly cartoonish for power and spin. His backhand is a pokey, shy little stroke but effective enough in a crisis. His athleticism is matched only by Carlos Alcaraz. He has every weapon you need to win majors and be the World No.1 and yet he has zero deep-and-meaningful slams and a highest ranking of No.13. Eight years ago.

Why the disparity between potential and performance? He’s rarely been fully committed. When he was finally having a proper crack two years ago, the injury struck. His on-court behaviour has always swung between entertaining and embarrassing but there were no volcanic eruptions in Brisbane. Still, he hasn’t shed his fondness for an F-bomb.

Kyrgios did extraordinarily well to take a set from the World No.31. It’s freakish, really, to spend two years in the wilderness then nearly beat the next big thing, very big, in tennis. Every hit of doubles with Novak Djokovic will be invaluable because Kyrgios needs every match he can get before the Open. “The sharpest pain” is the concern. Perhaps the injury will never properly heal. Perhaps he’s already written his best stuff.