Is Nick Kyrgios the successor to the tennis villain throne?
The sport of men’s tennis has a long, colorful history of producing villains. They are an essential ingredient in the success of the sport. Where would we be, for example, without Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe to loathe (and love)? Those two men, with the help of the supremely unaffected Bjorn Borg, pulled tennis from behind the closed gates of the country club into the main stream.
McEnroe was foul-tempered and foul-mouthed. In 1985, the Queen’s Club revoked his membership for insulting the wife of the former chairman with such vile speech that she refused to repeat what he said. In 1990, the Australian Open disqualified him from the tournament for misconduct. From 1977-1991, he was fined a total of $69,500. His reward? Lucrative television commentating gigs with various networks in the US and abroad.
Jimmy Connors, one of Mac’s biggest rivals, was simply a world-class jackass. He dropped an autobiography a few years ago–it revealed that Connors is, indeed, a jackass on and off the court. One who loves his dogs, it’s true, but a jackass nevertheless (especially after revealing that then fiancee Chris Evert had an abortion back in the 70s). He was dismissive, rude, horribly behaved on court. He didn’t bother to hide his disdain–and yet his 1991 round of 16 match against Aaron Krickstein was played out in front of a near-frenzied pro-Connors crowd.
For years after, CBS pulled out the Connors-Krickstein match during rain delays. Although I watched the match live in 1991, I have surely seen it a half dozen times since. I’ve often wondered how Krickstein must have felt, losing a 5-2 lead in the fifth with the crowd backing one of the jerkiest players to ever take the court.
Of course, there are the two greatest villains of all time: Ilie Nastase and Ion Tiriac. The Romanian duo are ACTUAL villains. Nastase has proven himself to be sexist, racist, a bully, and a generally vile human being. Tiriac, a billionaire with near unlimited funds to support his baser instincts, shares his colleague’s worst qualities. To make matters worse, he has been the owner of the Madrid Masters since 2009. He recently criticized Serena Williams’ weight (the cad!) and vocally opposes equal prize money. That such an individual runs a joint ATP/WTA event is utterly baffling to me.
We simply don’t have proper villains today. Okay, sure. There is Tennys Sandgren and his bizarre support of delusional far-right propaganda on social media. The problem is that nobody knows who Tennys Sandgren is, apart from people acknowledging that his name is…unfortunate.
Sascha Zverev isn’t particularly well-liked, but I think our collective sensibilities have been warped by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Since when is getting snippy in press conferences and smacking balls into the upper decks enough to bring censure down on a player? Since Fedal, that’s when. Federer has lost his temper on VERY rare occasions and Nadal (as far as I’m aware) not at all. I’m going to come right out and say it–it’s not normal, but it is the standard by which we judge the rest.
Until Nick Kyrgios, our most recent best shot at a villain was Bernard Tomic. He who refused to practice with Lleyton Hewitt because Hewitt wasn’t “good enough”. But Tomic was no villain; he was just a brat with a bunch of dings on his driving record. How do I know the difference? Because success is an essential component of villainy. If you’re going to go out on court and behave as though everyone is beneath you, you better be able to back it up on the scoreboard. Tomic couldn’t (due in no small part to lack of interest).
Whether Kyrgios has the makings of a villain remains to be seen. His behavior is poor enough. He once famously taunted Stan Wawrinka with a HIGHLY inappropriate comment about Wawa’s girlfriend and another member of the tour (during a match!). The trash-talk earned Kyrgios a $10,000 fine. He loses his temper, smashes rackets, drops f-bombs. No, the question isn’t whether he is poorly behaved enough to be a villain, the question is whether his commitment and health will allow him to be successful enough to earn the title.
I hate to admit this, but I rather hope he comes through on the tennis front. It will contrast beautifully with Fedal, don’t you think?
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