INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — After taking down Novak Djokovic in two sets on Wednesday, Nick Kyrgios said: “I’m just in a good place mentally.”
These are words that should strike fear into all men’s tennis players, particularly those still in the draw at the BNP Paribas Open.
Kyrgios, the 21-year-old Australian, is a frightening proposition for any player when he is in harmony with his environment instead of fighting it. And though Kyrgios has proved his volatility many times over during his short career, Djokovic, not Kyrgios, was the more unsettled and combustible man on Wednesday as the aces and winners piled up in Kyrgios’s favor.