The roar of juvenile invective that has enveloped tennis over the past couple of months rumbles on in the deceptive quietude of Mason, Ohio.
Andy Murray, who arrived late Monday and looks in great shape to win a third Cincinnati Masters, says he has witnessed no obvious locker-room fallout of the rolling Nick Kyrgios circus – but others have.
Before Murray arrived, fresh from a wonderful win in Montreal over Novak Djokovic, Kyrgios had to apologise to his compatriot Thanasi Kokkinakis for weaving him into a snide very public sledge that embarrassed Stan Wawrinka and Donna Vekic – not to mention the game and anyone else yet to be named in a soap opera that would stretch the imagination of Hollywood.
After Kyrgios inflamed sensitivities at Wimbledon with a world-class sulk after losing to Richard Gasquet, he all but self-immolated on a bonfire of his own vanity in Montreal last week. Now he departs one of the more pleasant pit-stops on the main highway of the Tour as the chief clown, more Bozo than Pagliacci. He still has not grasped that people want him to do well, calm down and just play some brilliant tennis. He should have “victim” tattooed on his forehead.
On day four in the final tournament before the US Open, the game’s stormiest petrel tumbled out in two quick sets in the second round to – who else? – Gasquet. “I just don’t have it today,” he said to a spectator as the Frenchman dismissed him inside an hour, 6-2, 6-1.
Kygrios slapped a few trademark whizzbang winners but his serve collapsed, as did his back in the second set. The tournament physio paid him two visits to manipulate his lower spine and apparently found no marks of a knife having recently been withdrawn.
He double-faulted seven times and Gasquet showed no mercy, returning a total of 25 winners. The Frenchman next plays – who else? – Kokkinakis. The young Australians have settled their differences but it is unlikely Kokkinakis will be sharing many secrets with his friend between now and Australia’s Davis Cup semi-final against Great Britain in Glasgow a week after the US Open.
Kyrgios’s outspoken brother, Christos, sat in the stands (without credentials, it seemed) and it is instructive that we know almost as much about Christos – who last week threatened to take revenge on Wawrinka for his brother – as we do about Nick.
This time, it was the tennis that talked, and it had mainly a French accent.
Kokkinakis – whom Murray admires and regards as the most reliable of the young Australians (on court and off, perhaps) – beat Ryan Harrison in qualifying. That too was a word-littered row, the sometimes volatile American declaring after a couple of disputed line calls that went against him and a face-off at the net. “If he wants to get into it, I will bury him. Wawrinka should’ve decked Kyrgios, and I should deck that kid.”
It’s tougher these days to work out the good guys from the bad guys than it is to predict who might win the actual tournament.
Murray, meanwhile, has managed to rise above the tumult, and his progress through the draw in the Rogers Cup, culminating in an edgy three-set win in the final over Djokovic on Sunday, has put the leading contenders on notice ahead of Flushing Meadows. He opens here on Wednesday night against Mardy Fish, who beat Viktor Troicki in the first round late on Monday evening in his farewell to Ohio. He will retire after the US Open.
Murray, newly installed as the world No 2 and owner of more wins on Tour this year than any other player, dodged questions about how impending fatherhood might affect his game. “I don’t know. I’ve have never done that before,” he said, smiling. “But obviously the last few months have gone very well.” Nor would he be drawn on his coach, Amélie Mauresmo, who gave birth to a boy on Sunday morning. “I haven’t spoken to her – just through messages.
“It’s only been a couple of days so I’d imagine she’s quite tired. I wouldn’t expect to speak to her this week, but she’s doing well and everything’s OK with the baby.”
For those interested only in the tennis and where it might be going over the next few years, there was a terrific struggle here between the two best teenagers on the tour in their first ever contest. The Croatian Boran Coric, who manages to channel his precocious talent and energy more productively than Kyrgios, beat the German qualifier Alexander Zverev in three sets. Both are worth watching – for all the right reasons.
