By Greg Baum
Bundled out of the Australian Open by a previously obscure Scotsman who until six months ago was playing at college and challenger level, Nick Kyrgios says that he won’t play singles in the tournament again.
“Realistically I can’t really see myself probably playing singles here again,” Kyrgios said. He added that he hoped to recuperate in time to play the other majors this year, with a particular eye on Wimbledon, and perhaps Davis Cup.
Nick Kyrgios grimaces during his loss to Jacob Fearnley.Credit: Getty Images
After two grinding years making his way through surgery and rehabilitation back to the big time, Kyrgios was set back by an abdominal strain five days before meeting Jake Fearnley on John Cain Arena.
Taking care to praise his opponent’s quality, Kyrgios said he was at 65 per cent capacity, his serve was neutered and he had played on out of respect for the fans.
“I tried to do the best I could with the state I was in physically,” he said. “Obviously, [it’s] heartbreaking because I wanted to play well. I feel like my level’s there. Obviously, the timing of the abdominal strain is not ideal. But it is what it is.”
Kyrgios said he had eschewed wearing headphones on court because he wanted to immerse himself one more time in the acclaim of the crowd that once gave him a hard time, but had become part of his show.
“I knew tonight was going to be tough. With my physical state going into the match, I knew that I was going to be really hindered with my serve,” he said. “But just seeing the fans line up for four, five hours, just the amount of people that were there supporting me, I didn’t want to just throw in the towel or walk off or retire. I was hurting physically (but) I respect my opponent. The fans waited hours to come see me play.”
So all that is left to report from the night is that Kyrgios played a match and nearly won a set.
Because of various ailments, he has done little of either for a long time. He’s become the star tennis player who doesn’t play much tennis.
Kyrgios looked rusty and sore; who would have thought? However sore he was in his recently stirred up abdomen, he was sick to the stomach.
Fearnley, looked like a man who had been playing continuously for the last year, albeit at lower levels, and has only recently forced his way into the top 100. He is what Kyrgios patently is not: fast rising.
Until now, the most famous Fearnley from the UK was cricket bat maker Duncan. This one packs a wallop, too.
Two sets and a break down, funky old Kyrgios momentarily reasserted himself, seemingly disorienting Fearnley and certainly triggering the hitherto hushed crowd.
His comeback got as far as a set point, but Fearnley saved it and steadied to dominate the tie-break.
Really, this was Australia’s most talented tennis player against an unknown in the first round of a major, so it should have been a doddle.
But it was also Australia’s most enigmatic and contrary tennis player in only his third match in two years in any tournament, against a US-based Scotsman whose game was like his accent, not quite what you’d expect.
It was Kyrgios who was flummoxed.
The occasion fell flat. The truth is that there are no blockbusters in the first couple of rounds of a major.
Jacob Fearnley and Kyrgios embrace after their match.Credit: AP
By definition, it pitches stars against nobodies, or middle-ranked players against one another.
It means that there are sometimes upsets – there was a big one on Monday – but no true blockbusters. That means they have to be manufactured.
So it was that Fearnley had to play a pat role: he was the obscure outsider who, for our purposes, had to be transformed into the ogre-like dangerman who our Nick bravely had to face down.
If you dispute that Fearnley was obscure, know that Nine commentator Todd Woodbridge at one point called him Kurt.
Kyrgios probably spent more money on a car last year than Fearnley’s career winnings. The trouble was that Fearnley truly was a giant killer.
The bad signs showed up early. Before the first set was done, Kyrgios was muttering and gesticulating at his cornermen, now in a courtside pod for added ire.
In the second, he was twice treated at change of ends for the abdomen strain that limited his preparation this week.
Fearnley matched Kyrgios serve for serve and revealed a well machined backcourt game. He controlled the first-set tie-breaker, then made an early break in the second set and consolidated it.
At 3-1 up in the third, the show was in all ways over. Simply, Kyrgios produced nothing for the crowd to return to him in the way of ferment. He did hit one-tweener, a half-volley, but Fearnley, far from, thrown, chased it down and passed Kyrgios with a backhand. The normally boisterous JCA crowd did not get much beyond a few random ois.
Suddenly, Fearnley tightened, Kyrgios broke back and underscored his ascendancy in the next game with a bit of Kyrgiosity when he won one point with an underarm serve followed by a shot played behind his back, triggering the crowd and changing the mood of the meeting.
Kyrgios received some medical treatment during the second set.Credit: Getty Images
Fearnley had expected this, but could do nought about it.
Kyrgois of old might have ridden this momentum to a famous win. But this was old Kyrgios, creaking from inaction. For most of the match, rust would have gleamed beside him.
Without much further ado, Fearnley closed the deal.
So what now for Kyrgios?
This, after two virtually blank years, more downtime. One thing won’t change. The peculiar thing is that the less he’s played, the more attention he’s paid. Whether sought or attracted, it’s fact.
Sometimes it’s sympathetic, sometimes it’s appalled, but it’s Kyrgiois. Fame and infamy are one and the same now, the trade-weighted currency of the times.
His profile is what it is. But what he desperately needs now is matches, ranking points and – believe it or not – confidence in himself.
Kyrgios has the show, but at his home major it has never really firmed into substance. Apart from the year he and Thannasi Kokkinakis conned everyone that doubles was now the very thing, it’s been a hapless hunting ground.
If he did contest the Open next year, he’d be the other side of 30. To him, it now looks a bridge too far.
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