What Nick Kyrgios must fix to recover from Wimbledon final defeat to Novak Djokovic

Nick Kyrgios is so close to the top of world tennis - and his play across the past two weeks at Wimbledon proves he belongs there. But he’ll never be a champion until he makes one big concession.

Nick Kyrgios will never reach his potential until he learns to control his temper. Picture: Getty

If Nick Kyrgios is ever serious about wanting to be a grand slam champion, he needs to take a cold, hard look at what’s really holding him back.

There’s absolutely no doubt that the Australian has the natural talent to win one of the four biggest tournaments in the world but he’ll never fulfil his potential until he learns to control his temper.

Time and time again, Kyrgios has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory after blowing his fuse and picking fights for no reason whatsoever.

He did it again in Sunday’s Wimbledon final - wrongly accusing a spectator of being drunk, ranting at the chair umpire, and arguing with his own family and friends in his private supporters’ box.

Unsurprisingly, his game just completely fell apart once he got distracted as Novak Djokovic came from a set down to win the final 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6, getting a critical break in the third et when Kyrgios blew a 40-0 lead on his own serve

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Nick Kyrgios will never reach his potential until he learns to control his temper. Picture: Getty

He has never played in a Wimbledon final and we know that also he kind of has his ups and downs in the match,” Djokovic said.

“He’ll probably be very upset with himself for losing that game. I didn’t win it; he lost that game with his unforced errors.”

American great John McEnroe - who was a hot-head himself in his playing days - said Kyrgios was trying to blame everyone else but himself.

“This is a perfect example of why you want Nick to just commit. He beat himself, he’s screaming at the box, I don’t get that bit,” McEnroe said.

“Maybe they should all file out and that might do something. He self destructed, he’s making it as if he lost the game because of them?”

Kyrgios has shown in the past two weeks he can go toe-to-toe with the world’s best - if he can manage the mental side of the game. Picture: Getty

Pat Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon champion now commentating for the BBC, said Kyrgios has the game to win but needs to get his head right.

“If he could improve 10% his mental management in matches he would be a grand slam champion,” Cash said.” When he looks back at it he will say ‘yeah I lost it a bit’.”

Even Kyrgios admitted he could have handled things a lot better after putting himself in position to lift the trophy by winning the first set.

“Obviously I was getting angry a bit because I just looked at it as ‘you win this tournament, you become a tennis immortal’ so it was just an opportunity for me that people work their entire life for,” he said, adding he could learn a lot from Djokovic.

“It’s weird, I felt like he didn’t do anything amazing. He returned obviously the way he returns, he’s just a great returner, but he was just so composed.

“In the big moments, he was never rattled. I feel like that’s his greatest strength.”

Kyrgios has the weapons to be one of the most dangerous players in the world. Picture: AFP

Kyrgios needlessly got distracted by a spectator who spoke during one of his points.

He claimed she had consumed “700 drinks” and was drunk.

“I’ve been on a couple nights out in my life, and I knew that she had too many,“ he said.

But when told by a British journalist the spectator had only had two drinks and was actually supporting him, he snapped back: “Well, that doesn’t make it okay to start talking to Nick Kyrgios who’s playing a final of Wimbledon.”

Something to aspire to.... Kyrgios stands alongside seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic. Picture: Getty

Djokovic’s coach Goran Ivanisevic said Kyrgios was so talented that his opponents can’t match his skills so just hang in there knowing it’s only a matter of time until he loses his mind.

“You cannot prepare for a match against Nick Kyrgios. Nick Kyrgios is a tennis genius,” Ivanisevic said.

“For me, he is the best server in the game by far. He’s an unbelievable tennis player. He’s very unpredictable so it’s impossible to make tactics.

“But also he (Djokovic) knew on this stage, when Nick starts to talk, he’s going to be vulnerable. That happened in the third set when Nick was 40-0 up. Suddenly Novak broke him and he was talking to his box. That’s Nick.”

GRACELESS, UGLY, GRIPPING: THIS WAS TYPICAL KYRGIOS

- By Robert Craddock

Being a Wimbledon runner-up gives Nick Kyrgios a sniff of everything and a guarantee of nothing but he has changed the world around him.

The final was like a magician playing a mathematician and the numbers man crunched the percentages and got there in the end. But it was close.

Kyrgios bowed out in a typically Kyrgios sort of way, mixing perfection with petulance, whinging at the crowd and complaining to his box for an apparent lack of support in a series of unglamorous, graceless rants.

It wasn’t pretty. At times it was pretty ugly.

But, as always, it was gripping and the crowd clearly warmed to him and gave him a massive reception for his humble post-match speech.

Significantly, Kyrgios played his best when he wasn’t acting up and his best work was spell-binding. In the end he lost two battles – with Novak Djokovic and himself.

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Nick Kyrgios was as fiery as ever in his Wimbledon final. Picture: Getty Images

Djokovic, unbeaten on centre court since, 2013, took him down in a typically Novak sort of way – by absorbing his killer punches, morphing into an emotionless brick wall of resistance, and taking him apart thread by hard-working thread.

If you came down from planet Mars and didn’t know who was the rookie and who was the man chasing his seventh title you might have guessed wrong, certainly in the first set when the younger man was clearly less nervous.

From cannon ball serves to silky, daredevil drop shots which might have been delivered on a silk scarf, Kyrgios had it all – it’s just that the numbers man played the percentages and won.

The most fascinating question for Kyrgios is what happens now. Is this result a launching pad or a landing mat?

Walk out of the box!!! You do realize that those people cant do anything, right??

— Rennae Stubbs OLY (@rennaestubbs) July 10, 2022

Honestly, this behavior of yelling at your box because they aren't doing what u want, is actually beyond ridiculous. THEY CANT READ YOUR MIND! Yes this is his way of dealing with pressure, I get it but this is straight up constant abuse to people that love you, its embarrassing

— Rennae Stubbs OLY (@rennaestubbs) July 10, 2022

He leaves Wimbledon exhausted. He will fear no player but plenty will fear him.

Will this near miss light a fire within Kyrgios that will drive him to be player he always threatened to be?

Will he slip back to being the first week circus act of Grand Slams before the big boys take over in week two?

Will we see flashes of both? Sporting champions driven to greatness normally have to commit to living lives which are far more boring than they sound and involve bucket loads of self-discipline and sacrifice.

Can he commit to this journey?

The only certainty is that Australian tennis is on a different course for this result.

When Ash Barty won Wimbledon and Australian Open titles there was talk the $60 million a year Australian tennis television rights could surge to $100 million and Channel 7 were raiding piggy banks to be a spirited rival to rights holder Channel 9.

Then Barty retired, Channel 7 reportedly took a backward step and everything went quiet as tennis momentarily felt as empty as The Phantom of the Opera without the phantom.

What happens next for Nick Kyrgios? Picture: Getty Images

Now the pot is boiling again.

At 27, Kyrgios feels much closer to the end of his career than the start of it.

But where he sees a door about to close others see the chance for him to shake it off its hinges.

Roger Federer is the game’s original ageless man but he is 41 next month and surely close to the end. Djokovic is 35 and has a 1-2 record against Kyrgios.

Rafael Nadal is 36 and there are signs that after pushing his body in all sorts of crazy directions for 20 years things are starting to go pop.

The message for Kyrgios is clear. The only man he really has to conquer is himself.

Originally published as What Nick Kyrgios must fix to recover from Wimbledon final defeat to Novak Djokovic