The bad boy of tennis

When Indian and Australian cricket teams have been busy sledging each other and when footballers were pushing and pulling one another to win games, there was the Australian Open winner Roger Federer acknowledging his fellow finalist Rafael Nadal. He said: "Tennis doesn't have draws or I would have been happy to share this with Rafa."

The sport of tennis, today, remains to be the true gentleman's game where opponents do not sledge and jeer, instead they smile and please the spectators of the sport. While each sport has many quintessential 'bad boys', tennis just has one – Nick Kyrgios. He is the perfect 'bad boy' that the sport of tennis wasn't looking for.

A mighty talented and extremely gifted player, Kyrgios has it all to be in the Top-10 but alas! it can be only when he wants it to be. Kyrgios is an enigma; supremely talented where he manages to put down the biggest talents and yet loses when most unexpected. Despite being one of the most exciting young talents in the world of tennis, he's been under constant criticism for not converting his talent into titles. The 21-year-old is only the second player to have beaten Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in the first time he played them. Apart from his big serve, Kyrgios is blessed with extremely quick hands and loose arms which help him hit unimaginable shots.

Kyrgios managed to hit a ridiculous between-the-legs shot during the Australian Open 2017 and while the shot might be the most unreal thing to happen on a tennis court, it said a lot about the non-seriousness of the Australian. The shot was a lazy lob and it seemed like the boy didn't care about the result of the match. Before the new season began with the Australian Open, Kyrgios had been given an eight-week tournament ban for tanking a match in the Shanghai Masters and was asked to consult a sports psychologist. World number one Andy Murray had even said, in regard to Kyrgios, that the mental toughness of a sportsperson is often ignored but that is something which needs to be looked after diligently.

Kyrgios is quite young and he has achieved more than what many would like to accept. Despite not having any Grand Slam, he is one of the most anticipated players in any tournament that he's a part of, and for a 21-year-old, that is a lot.

He broke into the scene by defeating Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon 2014 and has since caused occasional upsets only for his mental meltdown and emotional quotient to overpower him. John McEnroe is another tennis player who comes to mind when one talks about an on-court meltdown. Famous for questioning the match umpire, with "Are you serious?" McEnroe was himself a very controversial figure back in his time. The only difference being that despite his meltdowns, he knew how to channelise his energy and emotional quotient, which Kyrgios needs to work on.

Kyrgios has accepted that he needs a coach, not for anything else but to develop his mental fitness for him to last games. McEnroe had even gone on to say, "The only one I feel similar to is Nick Kyrgios because he has the same crazy energy I had." Not only words, McEnroe has even repeatedly expressed a desire to coach and help Kyrgios make the best of his extreme talent.

Kyrgios is called the 'bad boy' of tennis and true in many sorts, it may be too soon to judge a 21-year-old, after all, he has his entire career ahead of him — if he pursues it seriously that is because he has openly said that he enjoys basketball more than tennis. Kyrgios may swear on the court and defy all the set rules and standards of the game but he has even gone to show the immense sportsman-like side of him when he encouraged Tomas Berdych to take a review against himself in a quarter-final game and the hawk-eye showed that the ball was in.

Unexpected and enigmatic: Kyrgios defines a feisty, wild, still-looking-for-the-desired-road youngster of today. His mental game will only improve with experience and a coach by his side but in the world of angels, he stands tall on his own terms and by recently beating Djokovic in the Mexican Open, he has shouted out loud that watching his career unfold would be nothing short of an adventure.