11-time Grand Slam champion Rod Laver has spoken out about the attitude of Nick Kyrgios on the court and called for the 20-year-old to control his emotions.
Kyrgios has been under scrutiny this year for his manor on the court. During a match against Stan Wawrinka in August, the Australian was caught on camera saying ‘Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend‘. The incident elevated him into an unwanted limelight as he received a fine from the ATP as well as a six month suspended sentence. Recently Kyrgios’ on court manor has improved, however, he suffered a blip in his good attitude during his first round match against Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
Speaking about the world No.32, 77-year-old Laver has told Australian media that he needs to swiftly control his anger during matches.
“He’s playing at a level that is highly competitive and he thinks he should be winning a lot of points that maybe he’s not and so he gets angry”. He said.
“He gets angry at the system and so he’s got to learn to control that and control his own game, that’s the main thing”.
Despite the criticism of Kyrgios and his behaviour, Laver still believes that he has the ability to become a Grand Slam champion. Kyrgios has reached the quarterfinals at two Grand Slams in his career (Wimbledon, 2013 and the Australian Open, 2015).
“He’s just got to be able to understand to be a champion, which he certainly has the ability to be, he’s got to understand it’s bigger than just his game because he’s certainly got all the shots.” Laver said.
Despite the sharp words from Laver, a teammate of Kyrgios has recently jumped to his defence. World No.76 Thanasi Kokkinakis has argued that the 20-year-old is behaving better on the court. Kokkinakis was speaking to the media during the launch of the 2016 Australian Open.
“To be fair, I’ve been watching him and he’s playing well and he’s probably a bit more switched on than I’ve seen him before”. He said.
In the second round of the Shanghai Masters Kyrgios will play 6th seed Kei Nishikori in what will be their first meeting on the ATP Tour.
