No one could argue with the fact that Nick Kyrgios loves his sport. The Australian scribe thinks he has what it takes to make it. He gives every single ball back to his opponent’s body, regardless of whether it is a questionable lob or a ball that misfires long. He believes he can win Wimbledon next year. And if the rest of the game didn’t grasp that yet, this will only help.
“I don’t have any pretensions. I’m not the brightest bulb. I’m a footballer, I guess, who made the mistake of learning how to play tennis,” Kyrgios told Vanity Fair’s Michael Wolff in the October issue. “I always saw it as a sport. I don’t think I felt like I had to play tennis, but it became this game that I had to play in order to make it as a professional football player. I felt like that was ultimately the best opportunity for me to play. But it was a huge learning curve.”
Perhaps it’s because he has to hit so many balls to appease his own ego that there’s a frustration — on top of sheer joy — behind Kyrgios’s game. And so it’s no surprise that the enigmatic teen should find an added lift from the insanity that is today’s tennis world.
“I think the women’s game is really exciting, with so many personalities,” he said. “Tennis players are so public in a way that they don’t have to be anymore.”
When he’s not rocking it on court, he’s cracking wise. Kyrgios, who has a strong love-hate relationship with the tennis media, loves to joke about his perceived gripes with the media. And while the Wimbledon champ has at times gone out of his way to upend the American mainstream, he insists he still sees the writing on the wall for tennis’s future in America. “We’re a sport that’s also influenced by fashion,” he told Wolff. “We’re something we’re not. The fashion influences have come to dominate it.”
Because of that, the Australian is now among the most sought-after players on the circuit. He believes he can become a major star in the United States, but he knows he’ll have to do it the hard way. “I don’t feel like they’re going to be able to help me achieve the goal.”
In other words, he’s figured out how to win, finally.
Read the full story at Vanity Fair.
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