Jannik Sinner weathers Kyrgios storm to advance in spite of Miami circus

WATCH: Sinner made his second major quarterfinal to start 2022 at the Australian Open, and remains on course to repeat his 2021 Miami Open runner-up finish.

“Kind of finding peace and happiness I think definitely can come onto the court and help you play your best tennis,” Nick Kyrgios said late last week, after beating No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev at the Miami Open. “I feel like I’m at that point in my life where, yeah, I’m at peace with everything off the court, and I guess I’m just in the right mindset, you know.”

Since winning the doubles title with his friend Thanasi Kokkinakis at the Australian Open, Kyrgios has talked a lot about how happy he is, and how he has put his darker days behind him. And it has showed. He has looked fitter and played much better. In Indian Wells, he beat Casper Ruud and nearly beat Rafael Nadal; in Miami, he made routine work of Rublev and Fabio Fognini. In those matches, his clamp-down game looked as unstoppable as it ever has. Kyrgios fans around the world said it in unison: “This is the Nick we’ve been waiting to see.”

But Kyrgios, who will turn 27 in April, was careful to warn everyone that the old Nick hadn’t suddenly vanished sometime in February.

“Look, it’s just one match,” Kyrgios said after beating Rublev. “I’m not going to say anything crazy.”

Those words proved prescient when Kyrgios faced Jannik Sinner on Tuesday. Over the course of a couple of hours on a warm afternoon, in front of a noisy Miami crowd, Kyrgios’s latest era of good feelings came to crashing halt.

The trouble started early in the first set, when loud music began to blare just as Kyrgios had a chance to break Sinner. When Sinner eventually held serve, Kyrgios went off on a rant about how the players hadn’t been told that the conditions inside Hard Rock Stadium, where he played his first three singles matches, were so drastically different from those in the Grandstand, where he was today.

Things got worse when chair umpire Carlos Bernardes’ walkie-talkie went off after Kyrgios had returned a Sinner first serve. Bernardes called a let, Sinner hit an ace, and Kyrgios was ranting again, about Bernardes, about the tournament, about the tour, about the game’s poor “marketing.” Along the way, he was hit with a code warning for an obscenity.

“Get rid of everyone,” Kyrgios said, “I’ll run the sport.”

Kyrgios hung around in the first set, thanks to a few nervous returns of serve from Sinner, but his steady stream of negative comments at Bernardes never let up.

“You have no idea how to control a crowd, do you?” he asked Bernardes. “Sad.”

“What is actually wrong with you?”

“The crowd’s the worst, everyone is just the worst.”

In the first-set tiebreaker, Kyrgios slammed his racquet to the court after going down 1-3; Bernardes could have issued a point penalty, but held off. But when Kyrgios kept up his negative commentary after the changeover, Bernardes had had enough. He docked him a point for unsportsmanlike conduct, which made the score 6-3 in Sinner’s favor.

A minute or so later, after Kyrgios lost the set and totaled his racquet, Bernardes gave him a game penalty, which put him down an immediate break in the second set. Kyrgios mostly settled down after that, and tried to recover the break. Credit Sinner for holding his nerve, and serving brilliantly, the rest of the way.

I wrote a column earlier this month arguing that chair umpires shouldn’t be expected to listen to a stream of criticism and mockery from a player, and not issue any sort of penalty. And I think Bernardes was as patient as could be expected today. Despite what Kyrgios said, Bernardes tried repeatedly to quiet the crowd, and he could have taken a point from Kyrgios earlier in the tiebreaker then he did. As for the game penalty, Kyrgios had to know that was a major risk when he destroyed his racquet just a few feet away from Bernardes.

The most patient person on the court, and the best player, was Sinner. The young Italian maintained his concentration and came up with the crucial shots he needed. He won one point in the tiebreaker with an excellent first-serve return, and another with a brilliant backhand winner. In the second set, he held his serve four straight times in a pressure-cooker atmosphere, and never gave Kyrgios a look at a break point.

Kyrgios also played his share of brilliant tennis. The dominating serve, the drop shots and drop volleys, the rifle forehands, and the occasional head-scratching choice were all there. Whatever else he did today, he’s still playing well.

It can be hard to bounce back from the full Kyrgios experience, even when you win. Sinner will try to do it against either Frances Tiafoe or Francisco Cerundolo in the quarterfinals. The ride shouldn’t be quite as bumpy.