In the space of a month, ‘King K’ has produced an electrifying month of tennis to win a tournament, flamed out in the first round of his next one with a record setting fine meltdown, accused the ATP of being corrupt, and flattered to deceive at the US Open. So business as usual right?

The sentiment trotted around by ‘experts’ is that Kyrgios is bad for tennis, a poor influence on the young generation. But where is this young generation exactly? Australia hasn’t produced a mens grand slam winner since Lleyton Hewitt, ironically brandished as a brat himself at the time but is now universally adored by the fickle public. If young Timmy is motivated to pick up a racquet after being entertained by Kyrgios, is that a bad thing? The knowledge that his mum won’t be buying him a new racquet is surely enough to prevent him from emulating his hero’s antics…

Australia has an issue with perception regarding its sports stars. Maybe it’s the prevailing ‘tall poppy syndrome’. Maybe it’s a subconscious ‘little brother’ mentality when competing on a global stage. But Australia needs its sports stars to win, and if they don’t they need to be upstanding individuals. It’s notable that the boorish, often crass behaviour of the Australian cricket team of the early 2000s was applauded as ‘whatever it takes to win’ until the team started losing, resulting in the public outcry over sandpapergate.

All this has left Kyrgios trapped in a troubling loop. He is frustrated by the scrutiny placed on him by the media, and this results only in him having more regular outbursts. Is that enough to exonerate him? Certainly his actions at Cincinnati went too far, his angst over the serving shot clock yielded a clearly disproportionate reaction. The $166 000 fines were admittedly deserved.

Where to from here? Nick’s reputation and public standing is surely salvageable. Meanwhile in the sporting scene we have NRL players accused of rape, assault, home invasion assault (the happily welcomed back Matt Lodge), and so on. Kyrgios, for all his faults, has a clean slate off the court, and instead devotes a large chunk of time with his NK foundation for disadvantaged kids.

But this isn’t a puff piece for Nick. In order to make the much talked about ‘next step’, changes need to be made, both from Kyrgios himself and from the general expectation of the Australian public. Kyrgios is never going to become the classy, never put a foot wrong Roger Federer, and never going to be accepted by the whole tennis community. But he can carve out a consistent top 10 stretch, where minor disturbances during matches don’t snowball into front page meltdowns.

What we do have is a mercurial talent, a trick shot dynamo who will reel off highlights and a few tournament victories per year. Is a grand slam possible? For all his talent, to win five set matches he needs more consistency in as much as his shot making as his temperament. Too often his game disappears along with his serve. This current iteration of Kyrgios could sneak a slam if everything magically clicks, but that is unlikely. Will there be an improved version? We will have to wait and see.