Nick Kyrgios moves on after Miami Open defeat

The stands were full and the faithful were ready to greet their anti-hero inside Butch Buchholz Court early on Friday afternoon. Even before his match began, there wasn’t a seat to be found.

The anti-hero, Nick Kyrgios, paused to bump fists with fans who were lined up outside the court to greet him. He entered in his usual fashion, like the NBA players he loves, wearing a gray T-shirt under a basketball-uniform top. You never know what mood Kyrgios will be in when he plays, but he looked focused on this day. It was his opponent, Karen Khachanov, who sounded peeved that there weren’t any “white towels” available.

Anticipation was high not just for Kyrgios’s appearance, but for his encounter with Khachanov. They had played three times: Two of those matches, at the Australian Open and US Open, had been decided by razor-thin margins in five setters, while the third, in Cincinnati in 2019, had produced one of Kyrgios’s most notorious meltdowns. Whether this match turned out to be a classic or a calamity, these guys promised to put on a show.

For eight games, all was well. Kyrgios faced just one break point in his first four service games. His serve and forehand were sharp, and while he’s currently ranked roughly 860 spots behind Khachanov, he matched him ground stroke for ground stroke. During a changeover, he said a polite “thank you” to a ball girl whose job it was to shade him from the sun with an umbrella. The crowd roared after Kyrgios’s winning points, and stayed silent after Khachanov’s.

By the middle of the set, though, some rumblings began to be heard. At 2-3, Kyrgios started to mutter after a close call went against him. When a ball boy didn’t bring him his towel fast enough, he waved at him and loudly asked “Hello, hello?” Still, Kyrgios seemed determined to keep his cool. He nodded to himself after good serves, and gave his coaches in the stands a thumbs-up after digging out of trouble on his serve. One of those coaches was wearing a hat with the word “Evolve” printed the front. Was it a not-so-subliminal message to Kyrgios?

If so, it didn’t have the desired effect. At 4-4, Kyrgios ran out of patience, with himself and his team. After missing a short-hop volley, he bellowed a complaint in their direction, and basically didn’t stop bellowing at them until the end of the set. At 5-5, he bashed a ball out of the court after missing a volley and was given a warning. Later in that game, he hit a good serve that drew an error, yet still turned around and barked at his team.

Nothing, it seems can shake the faith of the anti-hero’s fan club. Wherever [Kyrgios] takes his show next, and whatever he does or says on court, they’ll be waiting.

Despite the negative energy, Kyrgios managed to push the set to a tiebreaker. But that’s where his game finally followed his demeanor downward. Up 2-0 in the breaker, he lost seven of the next eight points and the set. F-bombs flew.

And that was essentially the end of the show. In the second set, Kyrgios began to hold his right shoulder, and began to rush from one point to the next. He flipped a drop shot wide, and tried a big second serve at break point and double-faulted. Only when he was down 0-5 did he show off a little of his shot-making talent, in a rally that ended with him missing a tweener lob just long.

The match was a sort of carbon copy of Kyrgios’s loss to Botic Van de Zandschulp in Indian Wells. Both times he played well enough to reach a first-set-tiebreaker; both times he made crucial errors in the breaker; both times, after losing the first set, he stopped offering any resistance.

Kyrgios turns 30 next month, and the signals he sends about his career are mixed. After the Australian Open, he said it might be the last time he plays there. This week, though, he was one of just 12 players to put his name on a PTPA lawsuit against the governing bodies of tennis, a move that would seem to indicate a longer-term interest in the sport’s future. He began his match against Khachanov looking ready to compete, and seemingly in tune with his coaching team; he ended by winning just seven points in the second set, and getting the match over with as quickly as he could.

Walking off court after being bageled in the second set, Kyrgios spotted a man in a wheelchair who asked for a selfie. The two took a photo together, with the fan pointing toward Kyrgios in a “he’s the man” gesture. Nothing, it seems can shake the faith of the anti-hero’s fan club. Wherever he takes his show next, and whatever he does or says on court, they’ll be waiting.