Wimbledon

Odessa said:
I have meet and have had conversations many many times over the last year he stays at the Star in Sydney he is very honest and the first time I spoke with him he was so open and honest told me he doesn't like Playing tennis and that he does it for his family he is not stuck up I told him he is nothing like he comes across on tv he has time for fans and doesn't seek out being recognised in public he is like an expose nerve with his honesty but so humble in person softly spoken I was so taken back by him just a genuine nice guy in real life and gives you his time
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I would have bet there would be a massive difference between Kyrgios the player and meeting the man, outside of tennis.

So many professional athletes are taught to control the pressure and their emotions in a certain "calm exterior" way, and many of them actually fail to do this, and that is part of the reason why most of these individuals do not become champions. It's ability plus composure that makes a champion.

I have long disliked Djokovic as a personality, but you can only admire his almost robotic self-control and ability to play constantly at high level.

Kyrgios is just one of those dudes who cannot control his emotions either internally or in short bursts. That wouldn't even be unusual in general society, even if it's odd in professional tennis where guys like Federer, Bjorg, Edberg and Sampras are revered specifically for their composure.

Obviously Nick gets a bit petulant and he appears to treat some people like shit, e.g. having a go at his box during the final. I would not be surprised, however, if that was just a form of releasing steam (not necessarily a healthy one, or pleasant viewing) and his box knows it's not genuine, it's just one of his coping mechanisms.

Must be very hard for someone like Nick, with that kind of on-sleeve emotion and mental health challenges, to also try to accept being a public figure, subject so much judgement and speculation and tsk-tsking. I don't for one minute believe that he doesn't care, but he has every right not to care.

Complicated individual.
 
Seen the same thing 25 yrs ago the scud loads of ability he thought the whole of Australia was against him just a waste of a talent mentality not strong enough to win the big ones
 
upthetigers said:
Crazy that in this era, we have 3 of the best players of all time.
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Correction: 3 most successful players of all time.

Whether or not they are "the best" we can obviously never put to the test, e.g. how would a young Rod Laver go with modern racquets?

Part of the issue with modern men's tennis is, in my opinion, not only do we have a few superstars who are consistently winning everything, but there is a huge gap after the Top 3 or 4 players, and that has been true for about a decade.

Compare to a guy like Sampras, who had to win his Grand Slams playing across arguably more than one era / style of top-tier player. For example he started his career taking on guys like Becker, Edberg, Lendl and even McEnroe. His mid career involved long-term combatants like Courier, Todd Martin, Petr Korda, Goran Ivanesevic and Michael Chang (Chang with a surprisingly good record 8 W 12 L against Sampras). Long-time opponent in Andre Agassi. Then the players who emerged at the end of his career - Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt. Sampras played Federer just once, before he retired, and Federer knocked him out of Wimbledon (only the second time Sampras had lost there in 8 years).

And even then Sampras had strangely ordinary records against some competent mid-tier players, like a 7W 6L record against South Africa's Wayne Ferreira, 4W 5L against Michael Stich, 4W 6L against Richard Krajicek, 3W 4L against Marat Safin.

Compare this to Federer, Djokovic and Nadal who have basically been untouched for 10 years, bar a few competitive non-injury years from Andy Murray.
 
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