Mailtime: A Tennis Umpire Had To Get Out of His Chair And Beg a Player, Nick Kyrgios, To Start Trying In His Match at the US Open
Today during the 2nd round of the US Open, Nick Kyrgios, the 30th ranked player in the world, was facing off against French player Pierre-Hugues Herbert. As you are probably unfamiliar with either player, Kyrgios has a habit of being a head case on the court. He has probably the most talent of anyone in the world, but never has the mental game to go deep in major tournaments. You can usually bet on him having a mental breakdown during every major. Very rarely will he lose because someone was physically better than him. He beat Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014 that burst him onto the scene, but since then there’s been a lot left to be desired.
Today in the crazy NYC heat, he lost the first set of his match against Herbert, a far inferior opponent. Nick responded by losing the opening game of the 2nd set to love (not winning a point). Then when he was on serve he gave absolutely zero fucks. Usually tennis players take their sweet ass time in between serves, bouncing the ball and concentrating like a maniac. Nick just wanted to go sit down. Kyrgios went rapid fire with zero care in the world. Because he’s so talented he would mix in an ace here and there, but in the end he lost the game. In the 3rd game of the set he actually didn’t try for one ball, besides the 3rd point of the game. He wouldn’t even flinch at Herbert’s serve.
He trailed 3-0 and headed back to his chair for the rest period in between games. The umpire, Mohamed Lahyani, got out of his chair and literally had to beg him to start trying. Mo has umped tons of Nick’s games and knows him well, but this was crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it. Imagine how Herbert felt that the umpire was pleading with his opponent to try and start beating him? That’s fucking bullshit. Imagine you had money on Herbert? Well, you can guess what happened…
Krygios started trying and won the set in a tie break, 7-6. You should be allowed to venmo request the umpire if you lost money on that. Imagine that happening in any other sport? The ref just having a pep talk with someone to start playing better and more focussed? That’s insane. That’s called coaching! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that. Without that pep talk he most certainly loses the set and probably the match. He’s up 4-1 in the 3rd set and cruising, all thanks to the ump. Now he’ll likely win and go on to face Federer on Friday night which will be an awesome match, granted Nick cares (he gets up for the big matches).
P.S. I do actually love Kyrgios because when he’s on he’s absolutely incredible, but he has so many moments like this today that make you question why he’s even playing the sport.