The Nick Kyrgios phenomenon: Purified in defeat

What didn't we expect? this final day at Wimbledon. Bets have even been made that Nick Kyrgios will change his sport. From a tennis player to a hammer thrower or, to define it more precisely, to a tennis racket thrower. The playground equipment would have flown across the sacred lawn like an unknown flying object. Like a drone. And maybe even ended up at the feet of the members of the British royal family, which of course would have been a disaster.

But nothing happened. The sky remained clear. The Australian, who can obviously handle the entire range of wild emotions, remained comparatively calm during the final. From his point of view, he was probably calm, even though his ranting tirades continued. But this time he castigated himself with accusations directed at Nick Kyrgios personally. It was as if there was a twin sitting next to him that only he could see. He was probably the loneliest person on center court in these moments of incipient self-destruction.

Nick Kyrgios' exceptional abilities are undisputed. © APA/afp / DANIEL LEAL

Athletes like him fascinate and polarize. But they are also a guarantee against the monotony of long rallies. If you mean well towards them, they are often called “eccentrics”. The terms “outsiders” or “weirdos” or even “freaks” are not far away. They are actors who send goosebumps down the spines of us who supposedly live and grew up in normal structures, but who also satisfy our addiction to sensation. We watch and ask ourselves after an emotionally harmless first sentence in the final: “When will he finally freak out?” The clean man Roger Federer Someone like Roger Federer would have destroyed his whole wonderfully nice image if he had just dropped his tennis racket to the ground. Without momentum. But not even such an assault, and it would have been such for Federer, has ever occurred to him.

Roger Federer (r.) received a lot of applause at Wimbledon - also from Novak Djokovic (l.) © APA/afp / ADRIAN DENNIS

The Swiss was and remained the clean man of the industry. The goosebumps he caused came after passing shots with his backhand. Beaten one-handed with an incomparable elegance, rising above everything in these moments. Kyrgios can do that too. It can do everything you can do with a tennis racket. Sometimes it's also kindling, although the rackets that have been destroyed by many hits on the ground have cult status. Good luck to anyone who has one of these at home. In any case, no further racket art objects were added from the Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic. The Australian didn't immediately transform from a bad wolf to a loving stable bunny (no one can eat that much chalk), but he proved to be a worthy finalist and a great sporting opponent for the Serbian Novak Djokovic, who is also polarizing. Djokovic has himself under control Of course in a different way. He is an absolute master on the tennis court, as he once again demonstrated in his 21st Grand Slam victory. However, he sometimes comes across as arrogant and his gestures of celebration after a success are more like a rehearsed ritual and don't necessarily seem to come from the heart. His circus about the ultimately unauthorized participation in the Australian Open at the beginning of the year was unworthy of a champion.

But his sporting ideas are beyond any doubt. He always appears calm and controlled during stressful phases of a game. And when we think he is under particular pressure, he plays his best tennis at a level that makes him one of the most extraordinary players of his generation. His game is a feast for the eyes, from incredible flexibility in his serves to buttery-smooth stop balls that, as if magically controlled, touch the ground just behind the net on the opponent's side. Gentle almost like a snowflake and unreachable for his opponents.

Djokovic is anything but a ball machine and he even showed a lot of sportsmanship at Wimbledon. When in the quarterfinals his opponent Jannik Sinner from Sexten fell so badly while trying to reach one of those stop balls that an injury didn't seem to be ruled out, Djokovic immediately rushed to him and helped him back to his feet. That earned him a lot of sympathy and also distracted him a little from the fact that he still doesn't want to be vaccinated against Corona. which is why he will probably not be allowed to compete at the US Open at the end of August. But that is basically his own and clearly personal decision, which is far-reaching. So he cannot catch up with Nadal in terms of the number of Grand Slam titles. The new generation is ready But Wimbledon has also made it clear once again that the time of the dominant Federer-Nadal-Djokovic triumvirate is definitely over. Nadal, who recently won the French Open while still injured, did not appear in the semi-finals (against Kyrgios) due to injury and Federer only came to London to receive an award in a chic, blue double-breasted suit. Meanwhile, Djokovic was on the verge of defeat a few times. Also against Jannik Sinner, although he ultimately asserted himself again. There won't be another group as dominant as this fascinating trio in the foreseeable future. However, potential successors have already thrown their gauntlet into the ring. These include Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Carlos Alcaraz and certainly Jannik Sinner, whose change in the coaching staff has almost worked wonders. And of course not forgetting Nick Kyrgios. So it definitely won't be boring on the tennis courts around the world.

Football

Italy

International leagues

International

Winter sports

Tennis

Other sports

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Events

Favorites

The Nick Kyrgios phenomenon: Purified in defeat

In the Wimbledon final, Nick Kyrgios was an almost reformed finalist who worked on his tarnished image after his defeat against Novak Djokovic. Our columnist Sigi Heinrich still thinks highly of the Australian and also sees Jannik Sinner as one of the defining players of the next few years.

Suggestions

Comments (0)