Nick Kyrgios. The “g” is silent. Would that he would be, too.
What would we do without Nick Kyrgios to provide us with this summer’s emotional firestorm?
When we last saw Nick, the 20-year-old Australian tennis player, he was “sock”ing it to Wimbledon, suddenly changing socks in a match that he would ultimately lose (some say would deliberately tank) to Richard Gasquet.
Fast forward to the Rogers Cup currently being played in Montreal, where Kyrgios defeated Stan “The Man” Wawrinka but not before going all “So’s your Mama” on him by observing in front of the microphones that Stanimal girlfriend, tennis player Donna Vekic, had slept with Nick compatriot Thanasi Kokkinakis. This led to a locker-room confrontation with Stan, a $10,000 fine from the Association of Tennis Professionals (with possibly more to come) and a dressing down from two of the game’s longstanding leaders.
"Some players have problems to control themselves on the court. Sometimes when you go through the emotional challenges, it slips out of your mouth," world No. 1 Novak Djokovic said. "But again, there's no excuse for what he has said. He was fined. He deserved it. I think he's going to learn a lesson in a hard way. Hopefully, this won't happen to him anymore.
"I understand that every player goes through certain tantrums, emotional ups and downs during the match. In a big fight and at this level, I understand. But it's not, I would say, fair, and there's no excuse of directing your tantrums to your opponent, especially to somebody that is not even there."
Nole added what many of us have thought about Kyrgios: "He's young. He's definitely one of the players that everybody's looking to.
"His quality of tennis is really remarkable for his age.”
But how many times can Nick go to the well of the misunderstood prodigy?
No longer, Rafael Nadal said. While agreeing with Nole that Nick is a rising star – even a future No. 1 – he added, “Everybody can make mistakes. Age is not an excuse. We are here and most of the players around the tour, started on the tour very early. I started on the tour at 16, Novak probably at 17, Andy (Murray) at 18, so age is not an excuse at all. It’s just about respect. He was wrong yesterday.”
The irony is that Kyrgios is a pup acting out probably to get noticed by the leaders of the wolf pack, who’ve already given him more than his due.
But there’s more to it than that, which is the willingness of men to throw women under the bus in their fights with other men. Why do men do that? Because it’s the ultimate power game they play. Nothing demeans a man more, suggests he’s less than a man, than to have another man control “his” woman, or opinion of his woman. Unfortunately, Kyrgios’ crude comments are just the tip of the iceberg in a world where rape is a tool of war. A lead story of the Aug. 14 edition of The New York Times carried a story about ISIS’ “religiously sanctioned” use of rape – chilling and nauseating.
I’m not comparing Kyrgios to terrorists. But I am suggesting that women and their sexuality are often the fields on which men fight their battles.
Memo to men: Women are entitled to be whatever they are. If you men want to kill one another with words and guns, I say, Go right ahead.
Just leave us women out.