Locals fired up by Nick Kyrgios' Australian Open success
MELBOURNE, Australia – Sunday night in Australia, the whole of the country seemed to live and breathe with the trajectory of Nick Kyrgios' shots, the 19-year-old who has awakened this nation from something of a temporary tennis slumber.
On the eve of Australia's independence day, Kyrgios booked himself a spot in the quarterfinals here, the first homegrown man to do so in ten years, when Lleyton Hewitt was runner-up in 2005.
It appears as though he's just getting started.
"I am definitely feeling the pressure, but at the same time I had so much fun out there," Kyrgios said after a five-set come-from-behind win over Andreas Seppi. "When I saw I had finally won the match it was incredible. It was the best feeling I ever had."
Still a teenager for three more months, Kyrgios brings a swath of eccentricities to the tennis court, possessing a personality that is oozing with modern swag.
He walks onto the court with Beats headphones over his ears, engages the crowd with inventive and gutsy tennis and has a sort of brash demeanor that could be easily translated as cocky.
And he might be – for good reason.
"He's that of that generation X where he has youthful exuberance and etchings in his hair," described Brad Gilbert, the former player and coach and current TV commentator. "This kid has the chance to be the guy. He could be above (Pat) Rafter and Hewitt in terms of success.
This isn't the first introduction we're getting to Kyrgios.
Last June at Wimbledon, he saved nine match points in an upset over Richard Gasquet before he shook the sporting world with a victory over Rafael Nadal that included a highlights-worthy between-the-legs winner. He made the quarterfinals.
Kyrgios on Tuesday will face Britain's Andy Murray, the No. 6 seed, for a spot in the semifinals.
"He's obviously handled everything very well so far," Murray told reporters of the growing magnifying glass that Kyrgios is under. "I enjoy watching him play. I think he's entertaining."
As does the Australian public, which lined up for hours to see him Sunday evening on Hisense Arena, a general-seating stadium here.
After his run at Wimbledon, Kyrgios made the third round of the US Open and popped to No. 53 in the world. He's the highest-ranked teenager in the world.
"The big thing about Nick is how quickly he's come on," noted Wally Masur, a former player who now works as a coaching advisor for Tennis Australia (TA). "In the current game it seems to take juniors a long while to make a mark in the seniors, but he's started to light it up. He's got a big game. He's crashed through ceilings."
Tennis is a sport with a rich history here, with champions like Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and Margaret Court among the great names in the game.
But after Rafter and Hewitt won four majors in the span of six years, the country has been without a Grand Slam singles title from a man (Samantha Stosur won the US Open in 2011) in nearly 13 years, since 2002.
Hewitt, long a lone soldier on the tour, hasn't been flanked by this kind of talent in his career. Kyrgios, 22-year-old Bernard Tomic and Thanasi Kokkinakis, 18, all have made waves in Australia this week.
It's the realization of a developmental department revived, said Todd Woodbridge, a former doubles standout who now wears various hats at TA.
"In the mid to late 90s we lost our way with how we were developing junior talent; our programs fell apart," Woodbridge told Paste BN Sports. "About eight years ago, we got rid of all of the state politics and focused on what was important when TA took over the tennis programs from the Australian Institute of Sport. The key was to hiring an eclectic range of coaches that the athletes could choose from where they could attach their personalities and game styles to said coach."
Kyrgios, of course, was part of that program. The fiery kid from Canberra with a rocket arm and passion for basketball chose Todd Larkham, the same man who remains in his box today.
Kyrgios has been plastered all over the papers here. "Comeback King!" screamed the The Age, his picture on both the front and back covers after his five-set win.
The coverage, the tennis cognoscenti agree, is validated by his prospectives.
"I think he has a lot of potential," said two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka, who has become a close friend of Kyrgios'. "I think he has a great hunger for success, and it's really refreshing to see somebody so young being so confident with them self on the court. For Australia, I think it's great to have such talent."
"He's got game," said Masur, once ranked as high as No. 15. "People talk about personality and all of that, but he's got game – huge power."
Kyrgios will first have to hop over the high hurdle that is Murray, who he managed just four games against in their lone meeting last summer in Toronto.
"He's going to make me play a lot of balls," Kyrgios said of Murray, a simple assessment.
"Nick is an explosive athlete," added Gilbert, a former coach of Murray's and Andre Agassi. "He has a good sense at managing the score and knowing what he's doing with his game. The thing you can't teach in tennis is how to play at crunch time. When things are at the highest stakes, Nick relaxes and is having a go at what he wants to do. That means to me that he's going places."
For now, however, Australia hopes he's staying here for a bit longer at his home Slam, and perhaps winning the Australian Open.