It took just two games for Nick Kyrgios to start grumbling furiously to himself during his win in the Australian Open in a row – before taking out his frustration on someone’s girlfriend.
The Australian failed to take advantage of the break point in the first game of the match, but broke in the second when Portuguese Frederico Ferreira Silva opened 2-0 in the first set.
Waiting to receive again, Kyrgios seemed to say that it was “unbelievable” that he had achieved a head start and punished himself for his initial mistakes.
“Are you awake? You’re saying one thing for two games,” said Kyrgios to himself.
His murmurs were followed by a third game marathon and after spoiling a seventh break point, Kyrgios shouted to a member of his entourage, “Tell your girlfriend to get out of my box.”
It is not clear who the comment was addressed to, although his brother Christos was present in the box, as were two women and their father.
The release of the vocals seemed to work when Kyrgios finally recovered and held the serve for 2 to 2, before moving on and claiming the first set of 6 to 4.
With his tantrums out of the way, Kyrgios could concentrate on playing somewhere close to his best and when he caught on his serve, he was unstoppable.
He got a few quick points with his own racket – including a 46-second immobilization in the eighth game of the second set – by taking a two-set lead to love.
It looked like Kyrgios would maintain his fury in the third, but after being broken by love in the second game, he exploded again, seeming to scream at his box once again.
It was just a small speed jump and Kyrgios released his full range of strokes – including an incredible tweener drop shot winner – as he drove to a 6-4 6-4 6-4 victory.
“It was special. I appreciate you coming. Obviously, a very strange year last year. We all got over it together to make it possible, ”said Kyrgios when asked what it meant to be back on his favorite court in the world.
“I am very grateful that you came. It was fantastic. It seemed normal, to be honest. You were going crazy, it was good to see. I hope we can continue doing this. “
Kyrgios had a truncated advantage for the first grand slam of the year, as COVID-19 interrupted things, but there were signs that his temper was getting worse when he played a warm-up event in Melbourne last week.
The 25-year-old struggled with a knee injury when he fell to a straight set loss to Borna Coric at the Murray River Open on Friday. The 25-year-old received a warning for a tirade full of bad words in 4-4 in the second set, as f bombs were the order of the day, so he cracked completely after being broken, breaking his racket and throwing it against the bleachers that, fortunately, were empty.
This happened after Kyrgios lost his cool in his second round match against Harry Bourchier, where he exploded for having received a time violation and threatened to leave the court.