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Tankapalooza in Shanghai: Kyrgios Mails it in Against Zverev

From LastWordOnTennis, by Pablo Mosquera.

Days after the biggest title of his career, the Australian goes bananas again

Today we witnessed the latest episode of Tankapalooza, featuring Nick Kyrgios. The current #14 in the Emirates ATP Rankings delighted us tennis fans with yet another degrading spectacle. Mischa Zverev barely broke a sweat in a 6-3 6-1 victory over the mercurial Aussie in merely 48 minutes of play, hence advancing to the round of 16 in the Shanghai Rolex Masters 1000. The German will face Marcel Granollers, who upset Tomas Berdych in two tie-break sets.

It’s publicly known that Kyrgios does not profess love for tennis. He even admitted to be bored during his routine 6-4 6-4 win over big server Sam Querrey the day before in less than an hour. Nobody foresaw this debacle, though. Shanghai boasts one of the fastest courts on the tour, bolstering Kyrgios’ sniper-level serve (he has won 69% of the service points this year according to ATP official stats). On the other side of the net, the older Zverev is famous for three things: the double bagel he received against Roger Federer in Halle ’13, being the brother of Alexander/Sascha (arguably the crown jewel of the #NextGen crew) Zverev, and his lackluster return game.

It’s very fitting Zverev ended up winning 56% of the overall return points today, isn’t it? No, it is not. Prior to today, according to Tennis Abstract, in 2016 outside of Grand Slam qualifying, he only reached that threshold in 3 out of his other 37 matches on hard court: versus unranked WC Zhicheng Zhu at Shenzhen Q1, versus 1365-ranked WC Pavel Krainik at Canada Masters Q1, and against Adrian Mannarino at Los Cabos, which is a big outlier… and the conditions in Mexico are quite slow, favoring the returner.

Let’s go back and focus in Thursday’s match, where the Australian ship sank right off the bat. An opening-game break prompted Kyrgios to unleash his repertoire of shenanigans. Not splitting before the return, attempting massive dragonballs, forehands over and over…nothing too serious until he activated the IDGAF tank mode.

The chair umpire proceeded to give the Mr. Hyde version of Kyrgios a verbal warning. Nevertheless, the 21-year-old´s effort kept waning and the spectators were starting to grow tired of the situation.

During the changeover between the first and second sets, the recent Rakuten Open champion implied he wanted to go home as soon as possible, according to journalist Reem Abulleil.

Indeed, in the second set Kyrgios did nothing noteworthy except for picking up a verbal scuffle with an upset fan.

The failed circus shot at match point sums up the Canberra native´s approach to this encounter. Props to Zverev for withstanding the show. It´s definitely not easy to remain focused throughout the farce.

With all due respect to Zverev, Granollers, and Vasek Pospisil, the long-awaited blockbuster matchup between Novak Djokovic and Kyrgios did not seem far-fetched this week. Is the chance of proving himself on the big stage against the best player in the world not sufficient motivation to give a stout effort on the court?

Even though he had hinted he missed his girlfriend Ajla Tomljanovic, that is not a legit excuse to disrespect the sport. Despite having tweeted he needed to catch a break after the brilliant Tokyo title run, there was no reason to disappoint all the fans.

All the detractors must be oozing joy and hoping for a hefty fine or even a suspension. On the other hand, the apologists are surely disgusted by the pathetic performance. It´s a no-win scenario, Nicholas. Admitting your fault is a good start, at least.

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