Kyrgios caper to test Medvedev’s mettle

The sneaky Nick Kyrgios that could make the Australian Open’s favourite blood boil.

Nick Kyrgios unleashes a traditional serve during a doubles match on Wednesday. Picture: Mark Stewart

Nick Kyrgios will serve underarm to Daniil Medvedev. There goes the neighbourhood. The Australian Open favourite likes to return from about five metres behind the baseline and so if Kyrgios’s dubious tactic is going to work against anyone, it’s him.

The simmering unknown is whether the Russian will take it in good grace. Unlikely.

If Medvedev views it as poor sportsmanship, as plenty of people do, it’ll be on for young and old. Because if you think Kyrgios can lose his temper, wait until you see Medvedev in full cry. Liam Broady was happy enough to be toyed with. Medvedev ain’t Liam Broady.

Underarm serves were a no-no until Kyrgios introduced them a few years ago. The most basic version has become kind of accepted. But there’s a second underarm serve he does that is comparable to a mankad in cricket. It’s this one that threatens to make Medvedev blow his stack.

The first form of underarm serve isn’t especially sneaky. He bounces the ball a few times and then dinks a drop shot, occasionally hitting the ball between his legs. It’s not such a big deal and quite easy to pick. The one that really looks like poor sportsmanship is when he fakes to do the underarm, pulls out to make the returner think it’s not happening – and then does it anyway. Up there with pretending to bowl in cricket, hanging on to the ball and then running out the batsman at the bowler’s end.

Medvedev versus Kyrgios is a classic case of a serious Open contender trying to dismiss someone who’s here to cause a bit of mischief. When you serve as powerfully and accurately as Kyrgios, there’s no match you cannot win. Except, perhaps, this one.

There’s no doubt Kyrgios can win a set if he runs hot. Winning three is a different matter. Worryingly for Kyrgios, the volatile environment he likes to whip up is what Medvedev enjoys the most.

“It’s going to be a hell of an experience for me,” Kyrgios said. “He’s probably the best player in the world at the moment. I’m excited. That’s why I play the game. I feel like those matches still excite me. To go out there and play the best in the world. That was always something I wanted to prove to people, that someone like me could do it.

“Win those matches. I’m not going to go into it with a lot of expectation. I’m going to go out there, have some fun, play my game. I have a pretty set-in-stone game plan of what I need to do to have success.”

Details of the game plan? There’s no real game plan.

“I’m just going to go with the flow,” he says. “I don’t plan.

“To be honest, I don’t really care at the moment. When I cross that bridge of playing Daniil when I walk out there, that’s when I will deal with that.”

Kyrgios has won his only two matches against Medvedev. Both were in 2019, on hardcourt at Washington and clay at Rome. Medvedev was yet to break into the top ten. Kyrgios was hovering in the 30s. Now Medvedev is the US Open champion and Kyrgios, one year older than him at 26, is ranked No. 115.

“He’s going to try to pump himself up,” Medvedev says. “He likes to play big names. But I will do my preparation. I will try to play good. If I’m going to be playing good, it’s not going to be easy for him. I have become a different player in terms of ranking and titles. It gives you experience.

“That’s where you can win matches you have lost before, against opponents which you have lost to before. There are still some guys on tour who I haven’t beat. It can stay like this. Our last match was so long ago, and we are both so different, and a different momentum of our careers, that it’s really tough to count (those previous results). I don’t think they’re going to come into it.”

Kyrgios drinking beer from a random punter in the stands in his win over Broady was a dumb act. The rest of his showmanship on Tuesday night was good for a laugh. The tennis wasn’t bad. But Australia was coming off its deadliest Covid day.

Everyone at Melbourne Park is under strict instructions to keep your distance, wear a mask, don’t do anything dumb. Kyrgios did something dumb … and hypocritical. Who’s to say Kyrgios can’t catch Covid again?

Asked his thoughts on the Kyrgios sideshow, Medvedev says: “I mean, he’s definitely a character. I think probably like almost everybody in the world, there are some things I adore in what he does – and some things I don’t like. I’m not going to tell you what exactly, but he’s kind of going to the extreme almost all the time he’s on court.

“That’s why people love to watch him. Even if they hate him, they love to watch him. That’s his strength. Talking about my attitude to him, I think he’s a great guy out of the court. On court, some things I like, some things I don’t. But I can say this about many players on tour.”