After three days, Nick Kyrgios gets the party going at Australian Open
Kyrgios #Kyrgios
Win or lose, the Nick Kyrgios show never fails to entertain. On Wednesday night, after more than three hours on court, the renegade moved into the third round of the Australian Open with a roller-coaster five-set victory over Ugo Humbert, to the frenzied delight of a riotous John Cain Arena.
“Honestly, I don’t know how I did that,” Kyrgios said afterwards. “That was one of the craziest matches I’ve ever played.”
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When Kyrgios walks towards you it’s like coming face to face with a hip-hop star. The fade, the fit, the pimp limp; six feet and four inches of imposing swag.
As a schoolkid with a “cuddly” physique (his words, not mine) he was photographed on court in a Wu Wear top with a racket in his hand and a look on his face that suggested, like Wu-Tang Clan, he “ain’t nuttin ta f’ wit”. As more than one wag has pointed out, the Canberran plays tennis like Wu-Tang incarnate, insomuch as on night’s like Wednesday there can be up to nine characters battling for attention during his matches.
But the Staten Island collective are also famous for their improvisation, and creativity. A recent study suggests Wu-Tang have one of the widest vocabularies in hip-hop. Kyrgios is not dissimilar in his discipline. Nobody else serves underarm, like he did successfully in the opening set. Nobody chooses a tweener as an offensive strategy early in a deciding set, like he did. He even paid his dues to OGs past with his spin on the Sneak Attack By Roger.
When Kyrgios walks away from you the sight is completely different. The broad shoulders that frame the imposing strut in one direction looked hunched from the other, forming the silhouette of a man head bowed and ill at ease. The bling and ink from the front becomes simply a mass-produced polyester shirt stuck to a sweaty back when seen from behind. The limp looks like, well, a limp.
Which side Kyrgios displays depends on energy. Following his underarm serve in game four he urged an already boisterous audience to bring the noise. Five games later he repeated the gesture prior to Humbert serving to save a break-point. Chest out, shoulders back, he was in his element.
Not 10 minutes more had passed and he was a set down and on the receiving end of a code violation for a destructive swish of his racket. As the crowd held its breath their champion tightened up, his strokes contained less wit, and collective belief sailed out of the open roof. This was not an unfamiliar script.
But the downbeat version of Kyrgios worked briefly to his advantage. Instead of playing to his Instagram account, the winner of six ATP Tour titles played like a championship grinder, opting for a run of sensible back-and-forth rallies. Humbert blinked first and one break apiece soon led to one set apiece. Kyrgios leapt and punched the air like a centre-forward netting an injury-time cup final winner. The bandwagon was back on the move.
Humbert, an impassive lefty, and a trained pianist who enjoys playing the theme song from the movie Titanic, could not be more different to Kyrgios. But after seven games of set three this contrast of style and personality registered stats that were even across almost every line. Then Kyrgios double-faulted at deuce with the set poised at 3-4 and that sinking feeling returned. After suffering the only break of the set Kyrgios soon received a point penalty for a second code violation, this time for swearing.
An early break in the fourth allowed Humbert to control the tempo for half-an-hour. It felt like a victory cruise. But when it came to serving out at 5-4, Kyrgios, from the canvas, raised his guard once more, finding angles and bludgeoning returns causing fans to spill into the aisles like Wrestlemania. The ringmaster of John Cain Arena was suddenly in his happy place, entranced and loose, slapping ground strokes and bombing aces with a spring in his step and electricity in the air. Two-and-a-half hours into the contest is a long time to wait for flow to arrive, but when it did it nearly brought the house down.
A towering wave of momentum crashed over Humbert in the final set. Kyrgios broke serve in quicktime and at the changeover following the third game the crowd hollered Livin’ on a Prayer at deafening volume. “This is the best tennis has sounded since the pandemic,” Jim Courier beamed.
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This was a moment. A moment to drown out the negativity that has dominated recent days and months. A moment to revel in the power of a crowd.
Soon afterwards it was time for Nick Kyrgios to have a moment to himself. Briefly on his knees, then soon on his feet to salute the worshippers who powered him to an intoxicating triumph.
It took nearly three days, but thanks to Nick Kyrgios, the Australian Open is finally underway.