Woodbridge: On Nick Kyrgios’ suspension

The ATP had no choice but to give Nick a suspension. It was warranted and I think that they have done the right thing by the Tour.

But they have also done it in a way that will effectively help Nick and that’s what is needed. If he can buy into what they have given him, that opportunity to seek psychological support so that he can understand why he feels the way he does, then perhaps he can give himself some mechanisms to get through those difficult periods on court.

From the outside there are two ways you can look at Nick’s suspension:

You can look at it from a perspective where you have no relationship with the sport – or no playing privilege – and you might say ‘his behaviour is unacceptable, it’s crazy. He’s got everything you could hope for: success, money and fame’.

But you can also look at it from the perspective of the athlete – that’s a perspective I have – and all you want to do is be as good as you can be. There are times when, even though you are doing well, you still think that you are failing. When that happens, that’s when the psychological stuff kicks in. Failure can mean that you act up poorly and you then have to deal with the consequences of that.

That is also when the vitriolic hate that can come at you, or opinions that are written by people who have no idea of what you are really like. They see you on a stage – or a court – and that’s their sole opinion. They don’t know how you feel and they don’t know your reactions away from what they see.

That’s one of the hardest parts about being an athlete: have someone write something about you and think ‘why would they say that?’ It’s hard to take and it hurts; it dents your confidence. Nick’s way of dealing with that is to come out bigger and brasher and stronger, but in reality I don’t think he likes it or enjoys it. I think he wants people to like him – we all do. But he hasn’t worked out how to handle that scrutiny.

From my experience, you don’t learn that until you’re 26 or 27. That’s when you finally get enough life experience to be able to evaluate and sit in a more neutral space. We need to allow him that time. That’s not condoning his behaviour – he needs to be penalised for it – but you need to be able to give him some support mechanisms to be able to grow.

In many respects, Andre Agassi was not dissimilar to Nick. He had some well documented problems early in his career, but later he worked out how to get past all of that and realised how much he had to offer. He has turned it around to become a support network for a lot of under-privileged people.

Nick isn’t quite in that space yet, but he is a lot like that.

Ultimately, the thing about sport is that it is fleeting. When you’re in your late teens or early twenties you think you have a lifetime of tennis tournaments.

You don’t.

You blink and take a deep breath and you’re halfway through. You take another deep breath and it’s nearly over. This is probably a point that Nick will realise in the next 18 months or so – he’ll realise ‘wow, my time is coming and I’ve got to do something with it’. Maybe this is a part of that time and maybe there will be a bit of that realisation for Nick.