“I Always Root for Him, No Matter Who He’s Playing”

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday September 3, 2022

Flushing Meadows, NY—Nick Kyrgios is a polarizing determine that conjures up every kind of emotions in tennis followers. There’s loads of love, but in addition some hate.

Rising American Coco Gauff falls on the love facet.

Requested what made Nick Kyrgios must-see tennis on Friday after her third-round victory over Madison Keys, the 18-year-old shed some mild on a facet of Kyrgios that followers don’t typically see.

Total I feel he is a pleasant particular person. At the very least he is at all times been to me. I keep in mind I first hit with him, he in all probability does not keep in mind this, I used to be 13 years previous at Miami Open. He completed his follow, hit with me for, like, half-hour,” Gauff stated. It is simply issues like that that stand out for me. That is why I really feel like I can by no means dislike him as a result of always after I see him round, he is at all times saying hi there.”

Kyrgios took time to hit with Gauff twice whereas in Miami, when the American was only a junior. She says the expertise, and the Aussie’s variety phrases, helped her develop her self-belief.

“After I was 14 on the Miami Open once more, he completed a two-hour follow, I feel with Frances Tiafoe. I keep in mind saying, ‘There is no approach he’ll wish to hit with me.’ [He had just been grinding] it out for 2 hours. He truly stayed and hit with me for an hour once more.”

Gauff says the general public isn’t at all times conscious of the kind of beneficiant and sort soul Kyrgios is away from the match courtroom. “It is simply moments like that that folks do not actually see about him,” she stated. “So I feel folks paint him as a nasty man. I really feel across the grounds, at the least in my expertise with him, he is not.

“I feel in the long run it helped me in the long term as a participant hitting with him. He instructed me good issues about my sport. At the moment I am like, ‘Nick Kyrgios thinks I am a very good participant.’ You begin to consider that and achieve confidence in that.”

Gauff says that Kyrgios has the expertise to go all the best way in New York. And he or she added that she’s supporting him all th eway. “If he retains it up, I feel he can go far,” she stated. “He can win the event. Everyone knows he has the power to. He was shut at Wimbledon. I at all times, at all times root for him, irrespective of who he is enjoying, to be trustworthy.”