“Literally a month and a half ago I was playing basketball with some boys at home and I said to one of them, ‘I think I’m going to have fun and maybe win Wimbledon'” , Nick Kyrgios said after losing to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final on Sunday. “So I’m here as a finalist. I didn’t hit more than an hour a day.
As incredible as its run has been since then, there is an Indian hand to this journey.
Mahesh Padmanabhan, the Indian-born basketball player and now Australian coach, oversees the basketball games Kyrgios referred to. Kyrgios plays with a group of college and semi-professional basketball players.
Doing his thing on the biggest stage 💪
Introducing Nick Kyrgios with our game of the day#Wimbledon | @HSBC_Sport pic.twitter.com/Jd7BRKCNGE
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2022
For some time now, by his own admission, Kyrgios has been using basketball for his enjoyment, preparation, fitness, “meditation” and for some self-discipline.
“He was coming for people’s necks,” Padmanabhan told the Sydney Morning Herald. “He wouldn’t really hold back. This is the culture that we have developed here when we come to play. The concern for me was ‘Oh this is Nick Kyrgios the tennis player with 10 million followers’. A few people were amazed at first and didn’t quite believe he was coming.
“But it fades quickly and that’s because of his condition. He’s not precious, he doesn’t want special treatment. He actually hates it. He’s more proud of himself for being respected as a basketball player who can be good enough to be in that environment. He doesn’t want special treatment for running and having fun. He wants to beat them.
🗣 @NickKyrgios #Wimbledon | #CentreCourt100 pic.twitter.com/7ekjY84pWA
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2022
The day his Wimbledon opponent, Tsitsipas, accused him of being a “tyrant”, Kyrgios had again mentioned his basketball sessions in Australia.
“When I’m back home and you see me every day and who I’m competing with on the basketball court, those guys are dogs. The people I play against at Wimbledon… He’s (Tsitsipas) just sweet. Coming here and saying I bullied him is just sweet. We are not made of the same cloth. I’m up against guys who are real competitors.
One of the players is Chol Adup, who plays in the Australian basketball second tier league. “Kyrgios is actually pretty good at basketball. Me and Nick fight all the time, man. What Nick sees from other people at Wimbledon is nothing compared to KGV, man. If people saw what we do on campus, they’d be shocked. Nick’s not the bully. I’m the bully,” Adup told The Age. “When Nick’s around us bro, the amount of things we say to him … we go hard. We bawl him out. We don’t sit around because he’s the big dog. When he’s around, he’s not the big dog because we yell at each other.” does hard work help a tennis player? Kyrgios explained to the Australian newspaper.
“It’s been incredible weeks for me”@NickKyrgios had an unforgettable run at the 2022 Championships#Wimbledon | #CentreCourt100 pic.twitter.com/NSZybuzMIX
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2022
“Basketball is my meditation but at the same time it’s also good physical condition. People don’t realize that the defensive slides and defensive moves in basketball are almost identical to the way people move on a court of tennis.
The evening after the biggest tournament of his life, Kyrgios explained that he hadn’t even had a drop of beer during the two weeks of the tournament. Kyrgios had abused drugs and alcohol so much at one point in his life that he would come to matches ‘hungover’.
“I have the impression that I have committed myself quite a bit these two weeks. What more can I do, to be honest? I stayed there most of the time,” he said. I tried to sleep well, to eat well. Not even a beer here or there. I’m engaged. I committed everything I can commit those two weeks and just ran out. I was taught that was good – even if it sucked. Of course, it sucks. »