Why Rafa Nadal's blow-up at Nick Kyrgios was 'inevitable'

Nick Kyrgios and Rafael Nadal have been heading for an ugly spat for years.

That’s the opinion of tennis writer Steve Tignor, who says the Nadal-Kyrgios beef in Mexico last week was ‘inevitable’.

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According to Tignor, the vastly different styles of Kyrgios and Nadal meant they were destined to get frustrated by each other at some stage throughout their careers.

“Nadal and Kyrgios are about as diametrically opposed—temperamentally, stylistically, philosophically—as two people who play the sport can get,” Tignor wrote for tennis.com recently.

“Nadal tries to control the tempo of match by slowing it down; Kyrgios tries to control the tempo by speeding it up.

“Nadal is one of the sport’s most driven and intense competitors, who sweats the details and digs as deeply as he can to win every match, and virtually every point.

“As for Kyrgios, you never know what level of interest you’re going to get from set to set and match to match.

“In short, a conflagration between Nadal and Kyrgios was probably inevitable, and it finally happened on Wednesday in Acapulco.”

Tignor also lifted the lid on how Nadal was somewhat salty when Kyrgios knocked him out of Wimbledon in 2014 as a 19-year-old.

In complete contrast to the way he predicted big things of Kei Nishikori after suffering a shock loss to the Japanse star earlier in his career, Nadal was unsure about the prospect of Kyrgios making it particularly far in the game.

“Do you get the sense from that match that he’s a player you’ll be meeting time and time again in the future, perhaps in the later stages of competition?” Nadal was asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “The sport is a mental part a lot of times. He has things, positive things, to be able to be a good player. But at the end, everything is a little bit easier when you are arriving….You can do whatever and will be positive, and everybody will see just the good things on you.”

“When you played a young player, Kei Nishikori, I think you said he had Top 10 potential,” a reporter continued. “I’m not hearing that today with Kyrgios.”

‘Rubbed him the wrong way’

According to Tignor: “It’s also possible that he was reluctant to sing Kyrgios’s praises because (a) the kid had just knocked him out of Wimbledon, and (b) he rubbed him the wrong way.”

That sentiment was echoed by retired Aussie player Sam Groth on Monday.

“I don’t think Rafa really likes Nick very much,” Groth told RSN radio on Monday.

“Nick burst onto the scene beating Rafa at Wimbledon so I think there’s probably been something there from day one.

“To be honest, they’re 3-3 head-to-head now and I don’t think there are too many guys in the world Nadal would have a 50-50 record against.

“He probably just doesn’t like it very much.”

‘He doesn’t know anything about me’

Responding after Nadal’s comments, Kyrgios seemed non-plussed.

“I’m different. Rafa’s different. He can focus on what he needs to do,” Kyrgios said.

“He doesn’t know the journey I’ve been through.

“He doesn’t know anything about me so I’m not going to listen at all.

“I’m not going to comment on him, his game. I’ve got my game; he’s got his own game.

“We played well – that’s the sport. People are different – I’m not going to take that into consideration at all.”

with agencies