Speaking in a conference call to promote ESPN’s coverage of this year’s US Open, John McEnroe expressed concern for the career of Nick Kyrgios. The 20-year-old Aussie has gained notoriety for his on-court transgressions of late, but was recently granted a reprieve in the form of probation from the ATP with regard to his controversial on-court “sledging” of Stan Wawrinka in Montreal two weeks ago.
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Rather than focus on that incident when asked about the future of the talented Aussie, the uber-competitive McEnroe focused on Kyrgios’ tanking incident from Wimbledon this year. After becoming unhinged by what he perceived to be a bad call in that round of 16 match, Kyrgios elected not to compete for a full game. After the four-set loss to the Frenchman, he dueled with the press antagonistically, and denied that he had tanked.
“One thing I can’t condone or never condone is watching one player, any player, throwing the towel for a period of time,” McEnroe said. “He tanked a game against Gasquet. He sort of denied it, but it was obvious that he did. He’s having such issues right now. The pressure’s getting to him… I think he’d be well-served to look at the guys like Nadal, the guys that go out there, tremendous effort players. These guys are so professional now that he can’t afford to waste as much energy as he’s wasting with these sort of off-court comments that he’s making that just cause more problems for him.”
Despite it all, McEnroe says he’s pulling for Kyrgios to get it together.
“As far as what I personally hope, I feel that he could be a tremendous positive for the game,” he said. “He’s tremendously talented. He’s charismatic. He’s got a look that’s different. He brings something to the table. I think he can turn it around and I’d like to see him turn it around because I think we need that spark in tennis. When he smooths out the edges, he could be a tremendous positive, I think, for the game, and a top-five player.
Many have clamored that tennis needs more personality, as today’s top players have entered a period of relative calm and mutual respect that is far and away different from the wild days that saw McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and others all trading insults as regularly as they traded groundstrokes. McEnroe scoffs at the idea that more personality could ever be a bad thing.
To think that we don’t need personality, that’s crazy,” he said. “In all sports people want to see that. But, I mean, there comes a point where if you take it too far and you’re not good enough, you’ll be gone. That happens in all sports also.”