The Australian young star Nick Kyrgios has been playing without a coach since Wimbledon and in that time, he has been oft-criticized by press and fans for his behavior on and off the court. All the negative comments about Kyrgios increased after the Davis Cup quarterfinals tie between Australia and Kazakhstan, where the 20-year-old player lost 6-7, 7-6, 5-7 4-6 against world number 115 Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
After he had gained plenty of the fans' support for his amazing performances in Grand Slams, Kyrgios is considered as one of the bad boys in the tour. His comments that he really doesn´t like tennis as he prefers basketball and all the controversy for supposedly tanking against one Richard Gasquet's service games on purpose has affected his image.
According to his mom, Kyrgios is looking at Lleyton Hewitt as someone who can give him advice about dealing with the criticism and with his temperament when he is on the court. “He will listen to Lleyton because he knows what he’s talking about, he’s been at the top and been world No. 1.” Nill Kyrgios said. “What Nick doesn’t like is when people who haven’t been in that situation give him advice, but he’ll listen to someone like Lleyton. Lleyton’s been through everything that Nick is going through."
Speaking with the Canberra News, Nill also declared that despite Nick acting cool and trying to look brave in front the press, he has really affected by all the negative feedback he has received in the last month or so. That was the main reason he has replaced by Sam Groth in the fourth rubber in the tie against Kazakhstan in Darwin. “We touched base on it after Davis Cup because we knew Nick wasn’t in a good head space, he just wasn’t dealing well with the negative feedback,” said his mom Nill.
For now, the agreement is just for the Rogers Cup, Cincinnati and the US Open. Also they will play doubles in Montreal. Kyrgios will play his first round singles match against Spain's Fernando Verdasco and then will face Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in doubles. Hewitt as also seen working with Thanasi Kokkinakis during Rogers Cup practices.
There is no confirmation yet about if the former world number one will receive a wildcard to play the last Grand Slam of the year, but we do know we will be seeing him in the stands for Kyrgios.