Not everyone is a fan of Nick Kyrgios, but Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard believes the Australian is good for the game.
In his most recent outburst, the volatile Kyrgios exploded at the umpire during his opening round match against Reilly Opelka at the National Bank Open (Rogers Cup). During the second set tiebreak, Opelka appeared to touch the net with his foot as he raced forward to put away an easy ball. However, the umpire claims not to have seen anything, which led to Kyrgios exploding at her, using some colorful language to express his feelings on the situation. The World No.77 would go on to lose the tiebreak, and eventually the match in three sets.
Despite his irreverent behavior, Bouchard believes that Kyrgios is good for the game.
"I don’t think Reilly Opelka touched the net. Nick Kyrgios was just finding and picking things to get angry on," admitted Bouchard in an interview on Tennis Channel. "But it’s still entertaining. I’m still a fan. I think tennis needs a bad guy like Nick."
Perhaps the Canadian has a valid point, as the majority of tennis players tend to hide their true emotions during play whereas an open book like Kyrgios would keep fans entertained regardless of a match's outcome.
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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