MELBOURNE, Australia — Here on the island that was once the center of the men’s tennis world — the land of Laver and Rosewall, Emerson and Newcombe and other gods of the game — the strangest dynamic has emerged.
The rest of the world is obsessed with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Here, it’s all about their own yin and yang in tennis.
One of them is in the top 10 and will do everything in his power to avoid controversy, while devoting every ounce of his energy to the sport. The other is an unclassified unicorn, more at home in the center ring of a three-ring circus. One of them made his way to the sport’s elite. The other, according to almost all other players and some great names of the past including Goran Ivanisevic and Andy Roddickhas more natural gifts for tennis coursing through his veins than anyone on Earth.
THE Australian Open 2025 is abuzz with the latest actions of the two.
World No. 8 Alex de Minaur and Nick Kyrgios, returning after a two-year battle with knee and wrist injuries, headline their countries at Melbourne Park. Kyrgios anime the night session at John Cain Arena on Monday, before De Minaur headlines Rod Laver Arena, the hall of fame of Australian tennis on Tuesday evening.
They are both celebrities of the moment; they couldn’t be less similar.
Kyrgios has returned to the center of the tennis world as only he can, brandishing his confidence like a broadsword and swinging it in the direction of everyone he meets, whether they want to duel or not. He doesn’t even have a ranking after so long due to injury.
Yet even though he sits at the bottom of the pecking order among his compatriots in terms of numbers, there is no doubt about who is filling the stadiums. He has spent much of the last few months trolling Sinner, the world number 1, about his doping casesposting lurid conspiracy allegations on social media and filling comment sections with needle emojis. This included posting them in the comments of fellow Australian and Lleyton Hewitt’s son, Cruz, who put a photo of him and Sinner that represented probably the best moment of his tennis life.
Sinner is not very happy about it, even indirectly. “I don’t think I have to answer that question,” he bristled when Kyrgios’s beating was discussed at a press conference on Friday.
For Kyrgios, extremely talented but still ambivalent about life as a tennis professional – and always ready to turn matches into spectacles with diatribes against umpires, officials and those sitting in his own box, and taunts towards opponents – it was as usual.
He looked for more nuance in other areas of his life. In early 2023, Kyrgios pleaded guilty to assaulting his then-girlfriend Chiara Passari in 2021, but was not found guilty. He has spoken openly about his depression and said his mental health contributed to his behavior.
“We watch sports because we want personalities,” Kyrgios said on Friday. “Every time I go out on the field, I don’t know if I’m going to be very controversial in a good way or a bad way. Throughout my career it hasn’t always been good, but it has added a lot of excitement to the game. I think that’s important.
“There are so many good players on the tour now. I think there aren’t that many contrasting personalities.
How tall is Kyrgios around here? He lost his first round singles match against Briton Jacob Fearnley (like Andy Murray, a Scot) on Monday night in straight sets. He was dealing with an injury throughout, making much of the action provisional – and for him, returning from 18 months out, it may have been a warm-up act.
He will want to fill stadiums for the doubles, which he will play with his close friend Thanasi Kokkinakis. The duo – known as ‘Special Ks’ – won the title here in 2022, a run that took place in front of loud and excited crowds that turned the doubles competition into a national event.
In his post-match press conference after being beaten by Fearnley, Kyrgios made a stronger admission: “I don’t see myself playing singles here again.”
Nick Kyrgios drew crowds at Melbourne Park (Graham Denholm/Getty Images)
His contrast with de Minaur could not be more striking. Kyrgios stands 193cm (6ft 4in), a master of trick shots and creativity with one of the best serves in the world. De Minaur is a good half-foot shorter, and given his lightness, he’s shorter than that.
Still envied for his unrivaled speed, de Minaur spent the early post-pandemic years lurking in the world’s top 20. He carried his country’s hopes into a fourth-round match against Novak Djokovic here in 2023. Djokovic said he used the moment to get revenge on Australia for sending him out the previous year, in reason for his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19. He destroyed his favorite tennis player, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2.
Then, last May, de Minaur’s career took an upward turn.
He is half-Spanish and spent much of his childhood there, but never had much use for clay-court tennis events. He can run like a deer; he can change direction like a scrambling puppy; it has a huge engine. He is perfectly suited to the physical and intense play that the surface demands, and he has never relied on a big serve that a clay court could neutralize for his success.
He beat Daniil Medvedev – who hates clay – to advance to the 2024 French Open quarter-finals under a miasma of rain and clouds, shouting to his friends and coaches: “I love clay . I love it here. I can’t get enough of it.
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He received a series of “I told you so”s from these coaches. He then reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon and the US Open, forced out of the former by a cruel stroke of bad luck when he was injured late in his fourth-round victory. Hesitant hip and all, he fought his way to the year-end finals, entering the elite company of the top eight.
He was already a big star in Australia. Beyond his native country, he was best known as a star boyfriend, the guy who took the next flight out of Acapulco, Mexico, after winning the ATP event there last March to see his partner, English top 30 WTA player Katie Boulter, playing herself. finale the following evening in San Diego, California. This effort raised the bar for all boyfriends, sports or otherwise, and moved from sports coverage to television morning shows. He proposed to Boulter during the offseason. She said yes.
At Roland Garros last May, during a walk through the corridors beneath the Philippe Chatrier court at Roland Garros, he explained that he wanted to evolve from a grinder to someone with the extra punch needed to hit the ball on the field from time to time. Maybe even get a few easy points on serve. He was too easy to push around.
“I was exposed and a little intimidated,” he said.
Alex de Minaur has risen to the top eight in the world over the past 12 months (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
When de Minaur arrived on the ATP Tour six years ago, he weighed just over 150 pounds (68 kg) soaking wet. He now weighs around 167 pounds after a few gym sessions, and over the past year his weight and strength have reached a critical point. Finally, he could push the world’s best players back on their heels with a combination of newfound power and more revs on his groundstrokes.
“It was always about getting stronger, putting a little more weight on myself,” he said. “My ball weight is also a bit bigger and ultimately that’s what I needed to compete with the best players in the world.”
He couldn’t win a match in those end-of-year finals. However, he believed he had arrived.
“I’ve crossed a big barrier in my career, and now it’s about taking advantage of my position,” de Minaur said.
Kyrgios does not disagree. In his press conference on Friday, he recalled the first time he hit with de Minaur, when the latter was a teenager participating in a Davis Cup tie as a training partner. Kyrgios decided to play a few balls with him late in the day. He brought a beer to court, thinking it wouldn’t be too bad.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to go out there and teach this little kid a lesson.’ (But) It was a very close set. I was in the prime of my life. He was only 17,” he said. “To see how much he’s taken it upon himself to be our No. 1 player over the last three or four years, he’s grown.
“I was there. I haven’t always handled this in the best way possible.
No, he didn’t. Can he do it now? Can he once again be the player who reached a Wimbledon final?
Kyrgios will never approach a match with much humility. He said his sport requires a certain amount of illusion.
“If I play according to my style of tennis, my unpredictability, I have a chance against anyone. That’s the mindset you have to have,” he said Friday. “If I had stepped on the court for the first time against Nadal, Djokovic, Federer and been realistic, I probably wouldn’t have won. A kid from Canberra who goes out there and beats them… You don’t can’t be realistic. You have to think: “I’m the best tennis player in the world.” Is that realistic? But I think that when I’m there.
Perhaps therein lies the only similarity between the two, although de Minaur expresses the sentiment somewhat differently. He said that by succeeding at each Australian Open, he became a better version of himself. He learned a lot. Winning bred confidence.
“If it was strictly based on rankings it would be a pretty boring sport, but anything can happen at this point,” he said. “We saw opportunities present themselves, many doors open.
“There’s always a chance. Every time you enter a tournament, you should always think that there is a chance.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Will Tullos)