Remember the bad old days? When a villain at the Australian Open was someone who thought they could ghost around pandemic protocols, serving up anti-science tosh during a public-health crisis?
Last night, Nick Kyrgiosreminded Kiwi fans of more simple times, when our sense of sporting villainy was limited to the confines of the court and ended at the final whistle.
The moral trajectory of the Aussie tennis tyro from petulant whiner to well-rounded Renaissance gentleman looked far from complete when, late in the first set, he belted a dead ball into the crowd, whacking a kid and making them cry.
But as quickly as Nasty Nick hurt the child, Nice Nick was on hand to give the kid a racket to rapturous applause from the Melbourne crowd, who seemed freshly trucked in from Bay 13.
There were histrionics. Having sparked and goaded the crowd into jeering when Michael Venus served, Kyrgios summoned outrage when the Kiwi was put off his serve by the mob.
He squawked at the umpire, smashed a racket, dropped an F-bomb in his post-match interview and generally prima-donnaed his way through the night.
Ultimately, the singles strength of Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis – bullet serves, rockets up the tramlines and big-match hustle – won the day.
At the end, Kyrgios – who it seems doesn't much care if anyone thinks he's a villain – shook hands with Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz at the net and the sporting universe resumed on its merry path.
Nick Kyrgios isn't a bad bloke. That much would be clear to anyone watching the game from Melbourne, Auckland or Belgrade.
