Is Nick Kyrgios our most disappointing athlete?
The polarising tennis star was called out this week after his first-round loss at the AO. But should we really be upset or surprised when talented athletes don’t meet our expectations?

THIS WEEK THE Nick Kyrgios show rolled into town, as it tends to do at this time of year. Buzz had been building over the previous few weeks about the mercurial star’s return to the court after nearly two years out of professional tennis, with his injury status becoming a hot topic over the summer break. Would he or wouldn’t he play? The coverage was constant, much of it breathless, as commentary around Kyrgios tends to be. The 29-year-old Canberran is a love-him-or-loathe-him type of character. He is also what’s known in marketing and media circles as ‘box office’.
And then, it all fell flat. To be fair to Kyrgios, he did put up a fight against Brit Jacob Fearnley, the world no.92 in their first-round clash. The first set was close and Kyrgios managed to fight back in the third, ultimately going down 7-6 (3), 6-3, 7-6 (1). Given his long lay-off, it was a decent, even admirable performance. Afterwards Kyrgios said it might be his last singles appearance at the AO, which could be read as something of a threat given how much the tournament seems to rely on his presence to generate talking points.

Last night Kyrgios and compatriot, Thanasi Kokkinakis, made a brave attempt to recapture the glory and fun of their 2022 AO victory in the doubles competition, in a first-round match-up with fellow Aussies, James Duckworth and Aleksandar Vukic. Sadly, it wasn’t to be, with both players battling injury, the duo dubbed Special K were forced to retire in the second set.
So, yes, it hasn’t been a great week for Australia’s most polarising sportsman and Kyrgios’ poor showing predictably drew the ire of media commentators. Former AFL star turned sports pundit Kane Cornes labelled Kyrgios a “child” and “our most disappointing Australian athlete ever”.
“I just feel we talk about this guy too much,” Cornes said on SEN 1116 radio. “I understand why, but he’s absolutely dominated the headlines in the last two-to-three weeks in the lead-up to the Australian Open. That’s not unusual, that happens, and we’re not going to hear the last of him. Despite him being our most disappointing Australian athlete ever, he will still have a role to play because people are interested in him. No one has been spoken about more with less results than this guy over a long period of time.”
Of course, Kyrgios wasn’t going to take that lying down and duly fired back on X: “Gotta love comments from a (sic) athlete who didn’t play a global sport. Appreciate the kind words brother”.
Cornes’ criticism isn’t unfounded. When Kyrgios burst onto the scene back in 2014 with a shock fourth-round win over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, he looked like a player capable of winning multiple Grand Slams. That hasn’t come to pass and much of the blame lies with Kyrgios. His work ethic isn’t on the same level as his more decorated peers. He’s largely been content to coast on his talent alone – it was prodigious enough to take him all the way to the Wimbledon final in 2022. In a tumultuous and always entertaining decade in elite tennis, the Canberran has battled injury and mental health issues, though some, including Cornes, wonder if he works hard enough to come back from these ailments.
“You say he was injured (at the Australian Open), well why was he injured?” Cornes pondered. “Probably because he played PlayStation and played basketball and did other things that aren’t related to getting the best out of himself on a tennis court.”

So why are we still talking about him? Largely because he keeps talking. Kyrgios remains a prominent figure due to his willingness to speak his mind on sundry issues; see his repeated criticism of the positive doping tests and relatively light punishments for Jannick Sinner and Iga Swiatek. Former US star Andy Roddick recently labelled the Aussie a “tennis influencer”. He’s a pretty good one, too. Behind the mic or on the keyboard, at least, Kyrgios rarely disappoints.
Is he, as Cornes claimed, our most disappointing athlete, though? He certainly has a strong case to lay claim to that dubious title, though you do wonder if he wasn’t so outspoken and controversial, whether the likes of Cornes and other media pundits would be so harsh in their criticism of him.
But there are other contenders. Kyrgios’ compatriot Bernard Tomic, who was kind of Kyrgios before Kyrgios, is one who comes to mind. Since reaching no.17 in the world in 2016, Tomic’s career has been in a tailspin, as he’s battled injury and mental health issues.

Kyrgios’ doubles partner Kokkinakis, who turned pro around the same time and looked like an equally talented, less combustible version of his good friend, has seen his career ruined by injury. Kokkinakis has claimed some big scalps over his chequered career, but every time the 28-year-old looks set to fully unleash his talents, his body fails him. Interestingly, because he’s not the walking headline that Kyrgios is, the South Australian largely escapes the criticism levelled at his more outspoken playing partner.

Outside of tennis, Ben Simmons shapes as another national sporting disappointment. On paper, the former NBA Rookie of the year and three-time All Star has had an objectively good career. It’s just not the one projected for him as the number 1 overall draft pick, who was, at one time, regarded as the next Le Bron James. His callow, insouciant demeanour and swaggy Instagram output, alongside his failure to develop a jump-shot and refusal to shoot threes – despite posting numerous off-season videos of himself draining them over traffic cones – has seen him become a favoured online punching bag for hoops fans.
What all these athletes have in common, of course, is preternatural talent. That would be a blessing you would think, but it can just as often become a burden, creating expectations among fans, who buy the jersey and become emotionally invested in seeing the athlete succeed.
As any sports psychologist will tell you, talent alone is a poor predictor of future performance. Indeed, it often breeds bad habits. Many of these athletes were so gifted as juniors they learned to rely solely on their talent. That serves them well enough against lesser competition. But at the highest level, where everyone is talented, work ethic, grit, self-belief and other intangibles come to the fore, separating the true champions from the proverbial chumps.
It doesn’t help, of course, if an athlete has unappealing traits, such as arrogance and aloofness, or appears unwilling to put in the work to improve, as both Kyrgios and Simmons often do. Then fans feel let down, their ire finding voice in cascading comment threads and scorching memes.
It also doesn’t help matters that these athletes are paid exorbitant amounts of money, at a young age, as a bet on their talent, meaning they’re often not as motivated as they could be to improve. Throw in the inevitable injuries and the mental health issues that might arise from life in the spotlight and the attendant abuse that comes with it, and you have players whose careers begin to appear a little tragic. So much wasted talent, is a common lament among pundits and fans. The ‘tragedy’ continues, for media and content creators continue to give these players oxygen knowing that fans’ forlorn hopes lead to clicks. Maybe this time the player can get their shit together, perhaps this time you won’t be let down. As a dormant fan of Simmons, I still find stories about him irresistible, like a packet of stale Doritos I find in the back of the pantry and can’t help scoffing.
While not wanting to defend multimillionaires with enviable lifestyles too much, we, as fans, should perhaps take some of the blame when athletes disappointment us. We want them to be superheroes, to astonish us with otherworldly feats. The problem is the level of dedication required to excel at the top level borders on myopic, drawing on traits that are far from heroic. A study published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise in 2019, which assessed the so-called Dark Triad traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy among 1258 athletes, found elite athletes scored higher on all three traits than amateur athletes. It wouldn’t be surprising if, in some cases, it is these traits that fuel athletes’ drive and motivation and foster their legendary discipline – Kobe Bryant’s 4am practice sessions come to mind.
Rising US tennis star Taylor Fritz recently told Esquire Australia: “I don’t think I’d be here today if I wasn’t so hard on myself, and didn’t expect so much from myself”. He added: “We’re all very selfish people at the end of the day, playing tennis. We all want more.”
They may all want it, but not all are prepared to do what it takes to achieve it. And perhaps we shouldn’t judge them so harshly for that. The fact is, in the case of athletes like Kyrgios, Tomic and Simmons, their failings are all too familiar to us. And perhaps that’s why we can’t help hating them for it.
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