By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday June 20, 2019
Deep runs in tournaments for Nick Kyrgios have proven to be the exception rather than the norm and that’s why it isn’t really a big surprise that the talented, mercurial Aussie has gone 4-6 since claiming the Acapulco title in February.
That brilliant victory in Mexico was more aberration than absolution and the same could be said about his mesmerizing title in Tokyo in 2016. They were awe-inspiring performances that reminded us of just how many jaws this wickedly talented Aussie could drop but they didn't say anything about his ability to produce that level consistently on tour.
Mentally, Kyrgios is just not in a place to maximize his vast potential with much regularity and he proved that again on Thursday in London as he played two edgy matches on the verge of a meltdown and finally fell to Felix Auger-Aliassime in three sets in the second of the two before chucking his racquet into the abyss and walking off court to the usual smatterings of hard-earned boos.
It was entertaining (to some), frustrating (to many) and ultimately predictable.
Thankfully Kyrgios isn’t a trend setter on the ATP tour and, as three inspiring young guns showed today at the Fever Tree Championships, there is progress to be made by buckling down on the grass with Wimbledon looming in less than two weeks.
Case in point: 18-year-old Auger-Aliassime, playing in just his second ATP-level event on grass, notched victories over Grigor Dimitrov and Kyrgios to set a quarter-final with Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday in London.
The stunning contrast between the Canadian’s no-nonsense approach to the tennis and Kyrgios’ melodramatic insouciance was interesting to see. Here is an 18-year-old that knew what he was up against on Thursday and he bided his time well, never facing a break point and patiently waiting for mistakes to take advantage of against Kyrgios.
Kyrgios delivered the biggest mistake of all in the 12th game of the third set when he was serving to force a third-set tiebreaker. The 24-year-old went for an ill-advised tweener from the mid-court at deuce in that game. Auger-Aliassime finished off the point with a volley into the open court and on the next point the youngster rifled a return winner past a nonchalant Kyrgios who was on his way to the net behind the serve.
Game, set, maturity.
Auger-Aliassime, a humble talent and a fervent worker, already has six matches under his belt this grass season and even if he doesn’t get by Tsitsipas on Friday he’s done well to improve his form on the surface and his chances at Wimbledon.
It’s been a rockier ride for Stefanos Tsitsipas so far this grass season but the Greek is giving everything he has to the cause (you can feel his effort--it's palpable) and today he was rewarded with a dramatic, if uneven, three-set victory over Jeremy Chardy in his second match of the day. Tsitsipas, who made the second week at Wimbledon on his debut last season, is hungry to continue improving on the surface and he never quit on himself during a very challenging match with the Frenchman.
Chardy served for the match after rallying from a break down in the third set, but Tsitsipas kept probing for solutions and eventually found a way to close out the victory in the tiebreaker.
This was a work of sheer determination by Tsitsipas.
The victory is important for him because it will allow him another match on grass ahead of Wimbledon and it will also give him a chance to turn the tide against Auger-Aliassime, a player that has confounded him in the past. Auger-Aliassime schooled Tsitsipas at Indian Wells this March, and the Canadian has also taken all three of the pair’s matchups in juniors.
This is a challenge that Tsitsipas will be eager to face.
Another young gun that impressed on Thursday in London was Daniil Medvedev. The Russian carried a five-match losing streak into London (one of those losses came to Kyrgios on clay in Rome) but has managed to pick up wins over Fernando Verdasco and Lucas Pouille to set up a quarter-final with Diego Schwartzman.
It’s a fourth career quarter-final on grass for Medvedev and his future looks bright on the surface. He already owns five Top 30 wins on grass and he’s in a favorable section of the draw, so could be looking at a deeper run at the Queen's Club.
On Thursday in London he did everything in his power to advance as he battled tooth-and-nail with Pouille and finally overcome the Frenchman in three sets and over two hours.
It is thrilling to watch young players like Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Auger-Aliassime put all their energy into learning the grass-court game. Each battled through tough circumstances at one of the most prestigious grass tournaments in tennis, and will grow from that valuable experience.
On the flip side, it was difficult to watch Kyrgios, a naturally gifted grass-court player that could be a world-beater on this surface, sabotage himself with negative psychological patterns on Thursday.
As we saw at Acapulco, he can be an absolute dream to watch when he is switched on. Hopefully he’ll find it in himself to flick the switch before another grass season has come and gone.
On Thursday the best and brightest young players in the game took strides in the direction of realizing their potential on the trickiest surface in tennis. They all seem to know that it’s one thing to have the tools and be blessed with the natural ability. But it’s entirely another to make good on the promise.
On social media and in the Google-sphere Kyrgios is the name that is going viral once again after the Aussie spent a day berating umpires, launching comical punch lines (some of them quite funny, must admit), earning code violations and hurling his racquet into the nether regions of the grounds (quite dangerously), but for those reading between the lines, the best work was done by a trio of talents who will take their place in the quarter-finals on Friday.