He’s at it again.Nick Kyrgios is like a kid out at the Miami Open, playing tweener shots like they were ordinary, routine backhands and encouraging his opponent, Alexander Zverev to challenge a baseline shot that was called out.When it was eventually called in, he gave a thumbs up to Zverev and was heard to say: “I want to see that on social media.”@tennistv on Twitter duly obliged.
It was like a training match for Nick Kyrgios, who took every opportunity in his quarter-final, yes quarter-final, match at the Miami Open to showboat.After the game, @tennistv were tweeting that the match was quite the show, and Nick Kyrgios couldn’t help but increase his likeability and arrogance (in a good way) as he replied with: “And there will be many more of those to come.”He has respect for his opponents but plays tennis on his terms and to frank, he is a refreshing twist on a modern day sportsman in a usually prim and proper sport.Kyrgios is quite a characterA lot has to be said about Nick Kyrgios.At only 21-years-old, he has reached a Wimbledon quarter-final in 2014, beating Rafael Nadal on his way, reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open the following year, increasing his ranking to number 35 in the world, and he boasts a record with fellow countryman, Lleyton Hewitt – he beat Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic when he first played them – quite a career history for such a short period.But, more has been said about his apparent cavalier attitude to tennis which seems to make him tick. The Daily Telegraph reported in July 2016 about the Australian's defeat to Andy Murray at Wimbledon, in which they said he “has long craved admiration for being a maverick.”Even Kyrgios himself said in his post-match interview: “I don’t love this sport, but I don’t know what else to do without it.”Hardly a ringing endorsement if you want to be the next Wimbledon champ.You can see his kind gesture at the Miami Open in the video below.

Entertaining but living on the edge

A lot of people, however, do like watching him play – he always leaving you wondering what he’s going to do next.

But, he does have a side that is marring his chances of ever becoming a great. He has picked up numerous fines for breaches of code of conduct and unsportsmanlike conduct (despite his other sportsman like qualities).

At the Australian Open in January this year, he was fined over $7,000 for swearing and tossing his racket to the ground in frustration.

At last year’s Shanghai Masters, he was fined over $16,000 for lack of effort in a second round tie, verbally abusing a crowd member and unsporting conduct.

But the worse must be saved for 2015 at the prestigious Wimbledon Championships, where he was fined $2,000 for bad language and accused of losing the game to Richard Gasquet on purpose.