In what is (hopefully) the final installment in Nick Kyrgios’s tanking saga, the Australian has agreed to a treatment from a league-approved sports psychologist, which would shrink his eight-week ban to three weeks, making him eligible to play on November 7.
“Nick has taken up the care plan on offer to him from the ATP. The details and contents of the plan are strictly confidential,” the ATP told the Guardian on Sunday.
Though it was surely the right move in terms of optics, Kyrgios doesn’t have a whole lot to come back early for: he’s currently missing out on the Paris Masters, and after that the only ATP tournament left in 2016 is the World Tour Finals, which invites only the top eight players.
And thus the best year of Kyrgios’s career ends on a typically bizarre note. In case you’re one of the crotchety commentator types who thinks that, by being who he is, Kyrgios is somehow Bad For The Game, just remember: Nick Kyrgios is an entertaining 21-year-old player blessed with a vicious serve and preternatural feel, who, while hardly giving a shit, has risen as high as No. 13 in the world, and will likely fly even higher. If that doesn’t warrant our attention and appreciation, then what does?