US Open 2018: Nick Kyrgios gets unsolicited 'help' from chair umpire, creates buzz in tennis fraternity

For matches involving a certain Nick Kyrgios, by now, you can certainly guess what can happen. You will either see brilliant tennis, or a brutal meltdown. On Thursday, we had both in the same match. It took the most unlikely of sources to help give the Australian that kick to, well, simply work hard and overcome the set and break deficit to win 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3, 6-0 against France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

After three games of the second set, Kyrgios looked all set to implode. It was obvious from the way he put a regulation smash into the net as he trailed 30-0 at 2-0. The following changeover, with Kyrgios 0-3 down, though brought about scenes that got the tennis fraternity buzzing.

Chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani stepped down from his seat, went over to Kyrgios, stood with hands on knees and had, what Roger Federer termed, a “conversation.”

“I want to help you. I want to help you,” Lahyani was heard saying to the 23-year-old. “I’ve seen your matches, you’re great for tennis. Nick, I know this is not you.”

Simple words, but with great meaning. It wasn’t expected, or even allowed by a chair umpire, especially when on-court coaching isn’t allowed at the ATP stage or at the majors.

Something might have clicked in Kyrgios’ troubled mind. When he got back on court, he still had his trademark slouched shoulders that do nothing to explain his remarkable talent. His strokes though, all of a sudden, had new purpose and feel to it. The angles started opening up for him, because he forced those opportunities to open up for him with his clever power-hitting court play and then he grabbed them.

More importantly, the big serve which is his most trusted ally, started to find its groove. Kyrgios dropped only one point on his serve in the last set while his groundstrokes wreaked havoc on Herbert, who was broken in each of his three service games.

A match against Kyrgios can either be the most cherished or terrifying thing to a tennis player. At times, the temperamental Australian will gift you the match without much fuss. On the other occasions, he won’t give you a chance. Herbert, the world no 75 seemed to be in for the former scenario, till the umpire stepped in.

“I don’t think he (the umpire) has to go down and take the position of a coach. I don’t know if that changed something, I just know he doesn’t have to do that,” the Frenchman said after the match.

“I think Nick today could be an amazing player. It’s just that sometimes he’s mentally not here. I don’t know where he was for the first two sets, I know he was on court after (that) when he started playing, when he kicked my ass and was much better than me,” Herbert said.

After Lahyani’s New York Minute, Kyrgios won 19 of the next 25 games.

The higher bodies of the sport have been strict with the no-coaching rule. The faintest of whispers to a players box — if noticed by the umpire — will earn a warning and in all likeliness, a fine. This is what has made the incident all the more spectacular and controversial.

“It’s not the umpire’s role to go down from the chair,” Federer said about the incident. “I don’t know what he said; I don’t care what he said. It was not just about how you’re feeling, ‘Oh, I am not feeling well.’ He was down there for too long. It was a conversation and conversations change mindsets. But you don’t go speak like that”

Meanwhile, tournament referee Brian Earley offered to the Associated Press that Lahyani left the chair “to make sure he could communicate effectively” with Kyrgios, given the noise on Court 17 of Flushing Meadows. Earley added that Lahyani went to check if the player needed to see the physio and that he “would need to take action” if Kyrgios’ “seeming lack of interest in the match continued.”

Effectively, Lahyani did effect Kyrgios’ interest in the match, along with everybody else in the tennis fraternity.

Of the incident though, Kyrgios had a different view. “It didn’t help me at all, it’s so ridiculous,” he said after the win. “He wasn’t coaching me at all. I don’t have a coach; I haven’t had a coach for years. Of course, he wasn’t coaching me.

“I’m not sure it was encouragement. He said he liked me. I’m not sure, if that was encouragement. He just said that it’s not a good look. Look, I wasn’t feeling good. I know what I was doing out there wasn’t good. I wasn’t really listening to him,” the Australian said.

Kyrgios, long-dubbed as the most talented tennis player to waste that potential, soared through to the third round after that ‘conversation.’ He next plays Federer in what is expected to be another marathon.

The two have squared off on court three times, with each match going into a lengthy tie-breaker in at least two sets. Their first ever meeting at the Madrid Masters in 2015 had all three sets go into tie-breakers to give Kyrgios his only win.

The pair has spent a total of 7 hours and 40 minutes on court, spread over three matches of three sets each. Last year, in an exhibition tournament at the Laver Cup, the Australian lost the decider to the Swiss legend and left the court in tears.

This is obviously the clash that Kyrgios cherishes the most, the one he really puts his heart into. “I’m going to compete my a** off,” the Australian said of the upcoming match against Federer. This is the match Kyrgios will, even if legal, not need a chair umpire to come down and whisper words of encouragement.