Kyrgios’ Wimbledon final adventure

Kyrgios is arguably the most instinctually talented player on the professional tennis circuit.

When able to stay in charge of his game, he demonstrated over and over again, he could beat anyone.

But for great natural instinct to translate to enduring success, it must be accompanied by adequate execution of the shots on a regular basis.

For that the player must be fit, well prepared and able to give his undivided attention to every ball played.

As Federer has remarked – success at the top of tennis requires ten per cent genius and ninety per cent hard yakka.

Kyrgios' Achilles hill shows when he begins to lose points.

Then he finds himself having two opponents: one, on the other side of the court, but the other, on his side: his negative shadow.

His disintegration, often ending up in painful self-implosion, typically starts with his frustrated waving his head, from side to side.

This is the beginning of his negative shadow entering the court and often progressively taking charge of his game away from his instinctual genius.

This disapproving head movement tends to continue even when he scores beautifully, as if waving a finger at him: 'Hey, you are not off the hook!'

Soon audible negative self-talk follows, getting louder and louder, with this distraction occupying more and more of his attention away from the ball he is supposed to play.

This is an incredibly painful process even to watch as he, step by step, saps his own energy through self-division.