Wimbledon 2015: Federer throws elegant counter-punch against Kyrgios criticism

Nick Kyrgios - the maverick Australian tennis star - has been in the news for all the wrong reasons over the past couple of days as he crashed out of Wimbledon in the fourth round against Richard Gasquet on Monday.

Winning and losing is, of course, a part of sport. But what has made Kyrgios draw a lot of flak is one game in the second set. One controversial game.

Gasquet took a 1-0 in the second set after Kyrgios was penalised on his serve for code violation for swearing on court. Visibly shaken by that, the Aussie decided to either let Gasquet’s serves go by or dump them into the middle of the net with the most casual of returns.

Sure, Gasquet has a good serve but it was evident for everyone watching that Kyrgios had ‘stopped trying’. The BBC commentator called it ’tanking.’ An Australian swimming legend later said that players like him ‘should go back to where their fathers or their parents came from’ and that Australia doesn’t need players who don’t try.

But seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer had a completely different take on Kyrgios’ behaviour. “It’s like sometimes a boxer when he puts his hands down, is that tanking? Then he starts swinging freely again,” Federer said

“A game is like 55 seconds. Again, did he really do it or not? A game where a guy serves well, is that tanking, too?” shot back Federer.

His complete exchange with the reporter makes for some compelling reading :

“I think we shouldn’t dig too deep into those kinds of things. If you told me he did an entire set, plus more, plus this, I’d say, ‘OK, it’s a bit much probably.’

But I just watched the end of the third and the end of the fourth. He was fighting then. He was really wanting to win and he should have been in the fifth at the end. So in my opinion, it was a great match and it was close. The fans got their money’s worth, in my opinion. It was a close match last year. He saved nine match points against Richard. Today two.

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So one game to me is part of tactics, as well, sometimes to throw the other guy off. Maybe yourself, you can be frustrated and just not feel like it for a couple of points. Especially a younger guy, it’s going to happen more often than one of the top guys that have been around, that just like say, ‘OK, point mentality, we’ll do it again and again and again and again. For younger guys, it’s a little bit boring at times, which I understand.”

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Even if the boxing analogy could be seen as too much of a stretch, Federer’s point about player’s needing to release the frustration on court seems to have been missed by a lot of people.

Tennis is widely recognised to be a gladiatorial-sport where two players are left to take on each other without any outside interference. Even boxers have the advantage of taking a breather between rounds and talk to coaches.

It should not be ignored that Kyrgios went on to win the third set and ran Gasquet really close in the fourth, saving a couple of match-points before eventually losing, something Federer pointed out.

To blame him for tanking for a ‘55 second game’ is, as Federer candidly put it, could be reading too much into things.

Watch the full video of Roger Federer’s press conference below. (His defence of Kyrgios starts at 1:12)