An unforgettable encounter with Nick Kyrgios

I want to share a touching story.

If you follow tennis, you’d know Nick Kyrgios. I follow because my kids play tennis; we’re a tennis family. Nick is a very talented Australian player. He is best known for his difficult character. Racket smashing, arguments with umpires, epic meltdowns, and walking off the court — it’s often ugly with Nick and I mean ugly — ugly, not cute or amusing. Nick is truly the bad boy of tennis, reminiscent of John McEnroy (“You cannot be serious!”).

A few years ago we were visiting Florida and stopped by a few tennis places. At Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton we saw Nick — he was hitting with a partner, probably preparing for Miami Open that was coming up around that time. It’s always exciting to see a professional player on the court, so a crowd of kids and parents, us included, stopped their activities and watched Nick.

Nick paused his practice, and out of the blue called the kids to join him. All of them. There was a couple of dozen. He split them into a few groups and spent the next hour and a half hitting with them (“king of the court” game). It was so fun, so touching. It was one of the most heartwarming things I’d ever observed — a professional athlete having fun with kids, who were infinitely grateful for his attention.

My younger son plays a one-handed backhand, like Roger Federer! Every time Valentin would step onto the court (he happened to be on Nick’s team) Nick would say something like “Go, Roger!”