The tennis brat
Nick Kyrgios's ill-mannered run through the U.S. Open reminded me of one of my favorite descriptions for an uttery selfish athlete
My Aunt Katie was a hell of an athlete.
Actually, I shouldn’t put that in the past tense. When I left Yosemite National Park last November to fly home, my Aunt Katie had come over to join my sister and her two kids to hike up to Chilnualna Falls, which is about 8 miles round trip. My Aunt Katie turned 80 this year.
She was the second-oldest of the 10 siblings in my father’s family. She has nine kids, and growing up, we’d stay with them for a couple of days during our annual trip to Southern California each summer. The family didn’t have a TV, and much like Katie, her kids tended to excel in endurance sports and soccer. My Aunt Katie had a saying she’d apply to an athlete she concluded to be selfish: “You should play singles tennis.” Usually, this was applied to a striker in soccer who was disinclined to pass. I’ve always thought it was a hilarious turn of phrase, but it’s only recently that I’ve come to understand the truth in that expression.
The U.S. Open is nearing its conclusion over in Queens. My wife and I attended two days of the two-week tournament last year. We spent the day out there last Friday, getting a seat in the grandstand and then heading over to Louis Armstrong Stadium where we watched Casper Ruud beat the American Tommy Paul in a five-set match that lasted more than four hours. We thought about staying on the grounds for Serena Williams’s match against Ajla Tomljanovich even though we didn’t have seats in the stadium, but decided to head home and watch on TV.
The event itself is absolutely awesome, and New Yorkers take some clear pride in what is referred to as “the Open.” But I’ve come to love watching tennis in a way I never had before, too. The athleticism, the skill, the endurance. My father liked tennis, and I remember him watching Wimbledon, the French Open and the U.S. Open when I was growing up. He liked Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl but couldn’t stand John McEnroe and was only a little more tolerant of Jimmy Connors.
Turns out there’s more than a little bit of truth to the stereotype of the tennis prima donna, which I’ve discovered watching Nick Kyrgios over the past 10 days. Now, if you don’t follow tennis, Kyrgios is an extraordinarily talented player who is very charismatic and highly combustible.