Nick Kyrgios has given signs of great vitality in 2022, finally managing to find a minimum of continuity and expressing his immense talent. In fact, the player from Canberra won the Australian Open in doubles, the ATP 500 in Washington and deservedly reached the final at Wimbledon.
The Australian made a great ride on the grass of Church Road, surrendering only in the last act to a formidable Novak Djokovic. There were huge expectations for Nick at the start of 2023, but bad luck knocked on his door. Kyrgios had to miss the Australian Open due to a knee injury, which forced him to undergo surgery.
Barring a relapse, the ‘aussie’ tennis player should be able to participate in the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells and Miami. In the latest edition of the podcast hosted by Craig Shapiro, former ATP number 20 Dmitry Tursunov explained why Kyrgios is so loved by the public.
Unlike most of his colleagues, Nick is not afraid to be himself and is not afraid of public opinion.
Tursunov opens up on Kyrgios
“Players are afraid to show their personality, to say their minds, because nowadays anything you say can be twisted,” Tursunov said on The Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast.
“You say that, ‘I played great today,’ someone’s going to say that, ‘Oh, he sounds cocky, he’s putting his opponent down.’ So players in general are just afraid to be themselves,” he added. “That’s why I think Nick Kyrgios sells out every freaking stadium that he plays in because he hasn’t been neutered enough.
He’s been fined enough, but he doesn’t mind it. He’s a very strong personality of you ask me,” Tursunov added. “I mean, what’s the problem if a player is just throwing a middle finger to the crowd? It looks bad, the whole crowd is booing, but you just got the crowd emotionally involved,” Tursunov stated.
John McEnroe recently stated that tennis needs more entertaining personalities like Nick Kyrgios. “You must be watching different tournaments than me because I don’t see many players having meltdowns at all. And I know something about meltdowns, my past experience, and I’ve seen a couple of players, obviously Nick Kyrgios comes to mind having meltdowns on a pretty regular basis, but for the most part, tennis players are incredibly well behaved, maybe too well behaved in my book,” John McEnroe said.
“I’d like to see a little bit more explosive temper, see the emotions, wear it on their sleeve, there’s a handful of people you see that, but I just saw someone win Wimbledon on the girl’s side (Rybakina) who didn’t show any emotion, so I don’t know if any of us wanna see that,” the seven-time Grand Slam champion said.
