Tennis great John Newcombe has warned Nick Kyrgios that grand slam success is built on hard work and the climb to the top gets tougher and tougher.
Newcombe offered his advice on Monday night after awarding Kyrgios the medal named in his honour as Australia’s most outstanding player of 2014.
The 19-year-old is the youngest recipient of the Newcombe Medal, joining Lleyton Hewitt and three-time winner Samantha Stosur on the honour list.
Kyrgios swept to global stardom with his run at Wimbledon, where he saved nine match points against Richard Gasquet before crushing then world No.1 Rafael Nadal in one of the great upsets to reach the quarter-finals.
But Kyrgios also required some home truths from Hewitt and Davis Cup captain Pat Rafter about a lax training attitude before helping Australia back into the World Group with a key singles victory against Uzbekistan in September.
“I was aware of what happened at Davis Cup and he had some harsh words spoken to him from Pat and Lleyton and Rochey (coach Tony Roche) and he took it on board and bounced back the next day and started putting in 100 per cent,” Newcombe told AAP.
“The potential there’s for Nick to be a top-10 player or even a top-four player, but there’s a long road ahead.
“As you climb up the tennis mountain, it gets tougher and tougher and the question is: are you willing to discipline yourself to do all the hard yards that are necessary?”
Newcombe said he was impressed by the maturity Kyrgios displayed in his acceptance speech on Monday night when the flashy youngster acknowledged his poor attitude towards Davis Cup training and also offered praise for former coach Simon Rea.
Kyrgios parted ways with Rea, who now coaches Stosur, straight after Wimbledon.
“I’m sure it wasn’t Nick, but it was messy the way it was done,” Newcombe said.
“So it took a lot of courage to praise his coach because it was disastrous, so I really loved what he said up there on stage there. He was pretty brutally honest.
“I congratulate him on that.”
In a room packed with Australian tennis royalty, Kyrgios said he thought the resurgent Casey Dellacqua would win the Newcombe Medal and vowed to back up his success by doing what Newcombe, Rafter and Hewitt advised – working hard.
“I’m going to take it head on,” Kyrgios said.
“I know I didn’t have the greatest attitude. It’s no excuse not to train at Davis Cup. There were a lot of things going on.
“I’m just glad I got the job done for (Hewitt) in that last Davis Cup tie.”
Newcombe likened Kyrgios to fellow former world No.1 junior Grigor Dimitrov, who, after several years struggling with the tag as tennis’ next big thing finally cracked the men’s top 10 last season after knuckling down.
“I actually think Nick may have a few more weapons than Dimitrov has,” Newcombe said.
“There’s some very serious weapons. Not only that, he’s shown us he has the temperament. He’s cool under pressure.
“So it’s not just an act out there.”
