Nasty Nick takes a backseat as Kyrgios put on a mature show to reach Wimbledon quarter-finals

The 27-year-old reminisced about the days when he was too introspective and keener on the pub than warming up for a grand-slam match. He sighed as he thought about the days when he was a trailblazer.

“I kind of feel like I was the first guy who broke through young, like at 19, beating Rafa [Nadal] at Wimbledon,” he said, sucking, almost, on a Werther’s Original. “I feel like I was the first young guy to kind of show all the other guys, like [Alexander] Zverev and [Dominic] Thiem and stuff, that they were able to do it, as well.”

This was Grandpa Nick and it all felt slightly surreal, as if he had just watched Logan’s Run, the dystopian film where everyone is killed off at 30. It was also disconcerting.

Spectators took their seats rather earlier than they would have for a bang average, straight-laced round-of-16 match on Centre Court, in order to watch the irreverent brilliance of the Australian, not a player who has washed his hands of impudence. With all due respect to Brandon Nakashima from San Diego, not all that many were fussing with their supply of Pimm’s and sunscreen and generally feeling fluttery for the versatile American ranked No 56 in the world with 18,500 followers on Instagram.

Kyrgios’s 2.2 million followers are not necessarily after tennis updates. He attracts people who do not care to know who won at the ‘s-Hertogenbosch warm-up grass-court event and would assume in any case that it is a defunct brand of lager. Kyrgios is the rock star of the sport, all troubled soul and genius chords tightly packed alongside rudeness and arrogance.

The Australian walked out almost lugubriously, as if headlining at Glastonbury, aware of the adoration but stoically weary of it, and raised his hand in acknowledgment. During the warm-up he practised his famous underarm serve. You could say that was thoughtful of him, as the grandfather of tennis enigmas, in that it acted as a reminder to his opponent that such shenanigans were possible.

Nakashima held his opening service game to love and there was not one single moment of humour or controversy. The crowd murmured their disappointment. They do not mind Kyrgios being bored. He is always slightly bored by tennis. That is part of his so-called charm. But they do like him to be petulant, erratic and funny. Instead, they were faced by this old stager who declared that: “I think I’m enjoying the battle a bit more. I’m expecting everyone to play well against me now.”

It was all just so darned sensible and mature. Except it was not entirely believable. He gave up while serving 5-3 down in the fourth set. They say keep your eye on the ball, but he turned his back on it. Literally.

He sat down and tapped his temple as if to tell us he knew exactly what he was doing and that it constituted a form of genius. Kyrgios had, after all, never lost a five-set match at Wimbledon before and he said, in his on-court interview, that was what was on his mind. Which is weird when you think about it. You could try to get an A* in your history exam or you could doodle nonsense for the final question knowing you had aced your resits in biology and maths.

Still, old man Kyrgios knows best. He blitzed his way through the final set. He smiled briefly, put his finger to his ear to request louder acclaim, then he changed his footwear and his cap to lend a dash of red to his attire, something he was subsequently warned against doing again.

There is, then, still a teenager in the heart of Kyrgios but if he steers clear of full-on toddler tantrum mode, he could find himself in the final.

– The Times

Originally published as Nasty Nick takes a backseat as Kyrgios put on a mature show to reach Wimbledon quarter-finals