Kyrgios has never made it past the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event and has not made it past the fourth round of one since 2015. His best showing at the U.S. Open has been reaching the third round, including last year, when he lost to Roger Federer. After that match, Kyrgios acknowledged that much of his struggle was mental.
“If I want it enough,” he said, “I have a coaching option, psychology option.”
In May, Kyrgios was defaulted from the Italian Open after he threw a chair onto the court in a tirade after being penalized a game for his third conduct violation. Sometimes, even court officials get into trouble at a Kyrgios match. At last year’s U.S. Open, the umpire Mohamed Lahyani came down from the chair and seemed to give a distracted Kyrgios a pep talk during his second-round victory against Pierre-Hugues Herbert. Lahyani, a respected umpire, was suspended two tournaments for the neutrality-breaking infraction.
After the Cincinnati meltdown, Kyrgios returned to Flushing Meadows early last week and worked out on the practice courts in front of scores of eager spectators; Kyrgios is just too irresistible to ignore. He wore a No. 20 Gordon Hayward Celtics jersey to honor his favorite N.B.A. team, while hitting with Thanasi Kokkinakis, a boyhood friend and fellow professional player who wore a Hornets jersey with the number of Chris Paul.
The scene was full of laughter and wicked, jumping forehands that delighted the fans, and no trace of the anger and frustration on display a week earlier. In the middle of the practice session, Pam Shriver, a former U.S. Open finalist and now an ESPN broadcaster, approached Kyrgios for a live interview.
Kyrgios asked if Kokkinakis could join in, an acknowledgment of his friend’s wild card entry into the main draw of the U.S. Open. Shriver joked that Kyrgios was kind of a wild card in his own right, and he laughed and said he had actually had fun in Ohio.
Later, Kyrgios, who is popular among his peers, canvassed the players’ lounge, laughing with multiple players before collecting his friend, Sascha Zverev, and challenging an acquaintance to find someone else for a two-on-two basketball game — hoops being Kyrgios’s favorite pastime. (He says he prefers the camaraderie of a team sport.)
