Krygios-Nadal Matchup Has Some Drama

Although I'm upset that we didn't get the men's final in the Australian Open during blogathon this year, I did wake up early yesterday and caught a great 4.5-hour match where Nick Krygios outlasted Karen Khachanov, setting up a contest against Rafael Nadal. (I should note that I wasn't necessarily pulling for either player, although Khachanov did look like he was about to ride his skateboard to a Blink 182 show.) What I didn't know is that there is some drama between Krygios and Nadal, so that makes the next match even more exciting.

To put it into terms that I (and maybe some of you) understand, Krygios is something of the Liam Gallagher of tennis, meaning his attitude probably hurts himself more than anyone else, and if you have anything of a sense of humor, most of his antics can be laughed off as anywhere from childish to mildly entertaining. (I watched a YouTube video, OK?)

They talked about how he mocked Nadal's serve before the yesterday's match and how he once served underhanded against him, which I assume, like biting his thumb at him, is an insult to him if he bears it. (Sorry for the Shakespeare.) But the part I thought was interesting was when I heard that Krygios once HIT Nadal with the ball on purpose. I thought that was crazy, since normally the players are trying to hit the ball as far away from the other player as possible. I thought, if he purposely tried to hit him with the ball, he was actually doing him a favor by not making him chase the ball, right?

Now, what I didn't know was that Nadal was actually playing close to the net at the time, so he had very little time to react, and the ball was fired at him at 120 mph. That being said, I know sometimes in basketball, it's the best move to bounce the ball off the other player. He didn't hit Nadal in the face with the ball. In fact, he went a lot lower. (Maybe check out the movie we watched last night for more info on that topic.)

Either way, I'm going to try to tune in, or I'll least catch the highlights to see if any shenanigans happen. In the end, I'm all for having a guy who makes things fun yet is also a really good player.