Aussie firebrand Nick Kyrgios is well known for losing his cool on a tennis court.
Whether it be at the umpire, a linesperson, his opponent, a member of the crowd, or… just about anything else, the 27-year-old certainly wears his frustrations on his sleeve.
But he’s being lauded for taking a measured approach when Australian great Wally Masur admits “I would have lost it”.
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Kyrgios was up two sets to love in his Wimbledon quarter-final clash with Chilean player Cristian Garin, and the pair were locked in a third-set tiebreak.
Up 6-5 and on match point, a deep return from Kyrgios hit the baseline but the linesperson called it out. The chair umpire overruled and ordered the point be played again.
Rather than completely lose it and call for the tournament referee, in the same way as he did earlier in the tournament against Stefanos Tsitsipas, Kyrgios composed himself and won the replayed point to secure his first grand slam semi-final berth.
“I think there would have been a lot of players that went ballistic at what happened on match point,” Masur told Stan Sports’ Grand Slam Daily.
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“You’ve got to remember he was down in the first set – that was important, he turns that around and wins the first set. He’s down 5-3 in the third-set tiebreak.
“Lose that, and we know what Garin did to (fellow Aussie Alex) de Minaur, when de Minaur was on the cusp of winning in three (sets), (Garin) turned it into an arm wrestle and won.
“Nick’s very aware of that. He basically wins match point, the umpire dives in and makes a bad call, they have to play two. But he kept it together, and I think if there was ever a time as a player that you might lose it, that might be it.
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“I would have lost it, I promise you. That would do my head in.”
Kyrgios has reached the quarter-final stage of a grand slam twice in his career – the most memorable at Wimbledon as a teenager – but never made it this far in almost a decade on tour.
He seems to be in some of the best form of his career and now takes on an injury-plagued Rafael Nadal for a spot in the tournament decider.
Masur believes Kyrgios is playing smarter now than he ever has, and his win over Garin is case in point.
Kyrgios through to Wimbledon semis
“The obvious choice would have been to go with power, but I think he understood there’s no easy way through Garin,” Masur said.
“He played a lot of extended baseline rallies and waited for opportunities, waited for time and space.
“That was good to see, he was right in the moment.”
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