The autumn segment of tennis' grinding year-round calendar can be a player's time for atonement -- a chance to get back on track and make up ground. And really, who needs atonement more than Nick Kyrgios?
The mercurial 21-year-old won his third title of the year -- but his biggest yet -- Sunday at the Japan Open, an ATP 500 event. The three-set win against higher-ranked and ultra-smooth No. 14-ranked David Goffin was impressive in all the ways that really count.
Kyrgios won it coming from behind, having dropped the first set, despite having played an exhausting, high-quality semifinal against Gael Monfils in the previous round. We've seen Kyrgios come up flat after surviving long matches in the past (hello, Wimbledon 2016). Not this time. The final score: 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
The win was built on the legs of Kyrgios' best weapon, his serve. The big, precisely placed, smoking-hot delivery was there at every turn when Kyrgios really needed it. He was able to ward off 11 of 12 break points in the final, recover twice from love-40 deficits and hit 21 aces.
Just as importantly, Kyrgios played a beautifully modulated, focused match. His explosive temper never erupted. His tendency to go into a fugue state, muttering to himself, spraying balls all over the court and rushing shots and airing petty grievances, never emerged. His maturity was striking and well-expressed.
"It was tough; we had a lot of long rallies," Kyrgios told the media after the match. "I thought the way I returned today got me a lot of opportunities. It was a high-quality match, but I got lucky at times as well."
Humility. Geez, has this Australian hellion, reviled by so many as a millennial monster, transformed overnight into Rod Laver?
We'll see. One thing we know for sure is that Kyrgios really enjoys playing in Japan, and the local crowds appreciate and embrace him in a way that may make him relaxed and comfortable, perhaps more comfortable than he is elsewhere.
It's understandable. Kyrgios is Greek on his father's side, and his mother is Malaysian. The Aussies now see themselves as a Pacific Rim nation rather than a far-flung Anglo outpost, so other Asians have a legitimate claim on Kyrgios as one of their own.
"[The crowd is] very enthusiastic and very respectful," Kyrgios said.
Respect is a courtesy that Kyrgios, like other young men his age, has always seemed to crave. It's easy to overlook that in the blur of flamboyant haircuts and sometimes shocking antics that have defined Kyrgios. And he's probably had a hard time understanding that while you may expect respect in your everyday dealings in life, in the public arena it's something that you earn even if you're a sensation. He seems to be figuring all that out.
Great players don't like to lose, and often find it hard to act like model citizens when they do. Kyrgios likely is also learning that with his competitive temperament, life gets a lot easier if take care of business and win matches. It allows your inner nice guy to flourish.
We'll see how reconstructed Kyrgios truly is, if and when the speed bumps appear in his road again. Right now, it looks as if the criticism he took after barely putting in an effort in his fourth-round loss against Andy Murray at Wimbledon hit home.
Kyrgios took a bad loss at the Canada Masters 1000 to a wild card in his next match but rebounded with a title run in Atlanta (while most of the tour's stars were at the Rio Olympics). That seemed to get him back on track, and he hasn't had a bad loss since. (Kyrgios was forced to pull out of the US Open with a hip injury before his third-round match.) Ranked No. 19 after Wimbledon, he is at a career high as of Monday.
We'll see where he goes from here, but for now, it's encouraging enough that the ultratalented Kyrgios is taking advantage of the season of atonement without any of the antics that have largely defined his career to this point.