Two sets up and obviously playing the better tennis, Nick Kyrgios looked to have the entire Melbourne crowd behind him on Wednesday night. Even those who don't necessarily like him very much.
How he ended up leaving the court to some jeers is another reminder that home advantage doesn’t always work in your favour.
The first week of the Australian Open is never without drama, often more so than the second week, and so far this year has been no exception. And with plenty of Australians in the draw it's always fascinating to watch how they ignite the local crowd, bring the tournament to life.
It brings some extra pressure too. Although even that doesn't explain how Kyrgios, the Australian number one, somehow managed to conspire against himself and lose his second round match to the unseeded Italian Andreas Seppi. While most of the top seeds usually breeze through the opening rounds, Kyrgios wrote his own script.
He started out showing flashes of greatness, then slowly lost control of his emotions. It was a pretty incredible collapse and as that supportive crowd slowly turned against him, and you were actually left wondering if at times he didn’t really want to win the match, or just didn’t believe in himself.
Later, Kyrgios told a packed press conference that he wasn’t at the level he needs to be, physically or mentally. Not for the first time, either, and it ended up one of the great local upsets in Australian Open history.
There was some consolation afterwards when the number two Australian, Bernard Tomic, came safely through.
And on a very hot night on Tuesday, Daria Gavrilova also got the better of Britain’s Naomi Broady. Gavrilova shot to fame here last year, when she got to the fourth round. Evenly matched for a long time, it seemed Davrilova was slowly getting a surge of energy from the stand, eventually edged ahead, and won out just before midnight local time.
Household names
A couple of other Australians, Jordan Thompson and Andrew Whittington, also used the home advantage in their favour, securing unexpected first round victories and suddenly becoming household names here, or least to some of those people who probably never pay much attention to tennis the remaining 11 months of the year.
It’s all proof that home advantage can work two ways: help an athlete find some extra energy if that crowd is with them, or else test them in some extra way if that crowd happens to turn against them. The important thing is to be able to feed into that positive energy, or switch out of it if it happens to become negative, whether that’s at home or away.
I can still remember the Sydney Olympics, feeling the positive energy off the home crowd.
Having spent a number of years training and competing in Australia, I’d become very familiar with the stadium, the officials were all very friendly, and there was also a huge surge of Irish support in the crowd.
It’s not something you’re acutely aware of as you line up to run an Olympic final, but there is some sense of knowing that a great number of people in the stands really care about the result you deliver. While garnering that support and positive energy, there is also a feeling of responsibility.
I felt I’d let a lot of people know, one way or another, that for those Olympics I was back to my best, and that I didn’t just owe it to myself to deliver a result, but also to those people who were out there cheering me on, or had helped along the way to get me back to this perfect place. That feeling can often count as much as home advantage.
There is already talk that this summer's World Athletics Championships will bring some home advantages to Irish athletes, given they take place back at the Olympic Stadium in London. Rob Heffernan certainly made that count in the 50km walk, which took place around The Mall and Buckingham Palace. The place was thronged with Irish supporters and flags and helped spur him on to fourth place, of course since upgrade to the bronze medal.
Medal contenders
Heffernan remains one of our few medal contenders in London this summer, along with
Thomas Barr
, both of whom were ranked in the top 10 for 2016 according to
Track & Field News
, still regarded as the bible of the sport.
It takes a special athlete to crack into the top-10, with a number of criteria taken into account, not just championship performances, but also their sequence of results.
Few Irish athletes have actually made that top 10 in the past, only 16 men, and 10 women, and the Track & Field News rankings have been going since 1947 for men, and 1956 for women.
Heffernan was ranked sixth in the 50km for 2016, and Barr ranked ninth in the 400 metres hurdles, the first time that he has made that top 10.
There is hope home advantage in London this summer might spur more Irish athletes into making a similar breakthrough, although you do start to wonder who that might be. It’s not easy though it’s also not impossible.
Not many people would have predicted Barr being ranked inside the top 10 of his event by the end of 2016, and London next August offers another chance for that, an athlete to step up out of the ordinary and do something special.
Barr also has the stamp of approval, knowing that he is in the top league, which along with a smooth preparation will bring inner confidence and belief that he can step up again this summer.
Heffernan has also been there many times before and so can access the confidence any athlete takes from being ranked so highly in the world. He will want to hold onto or improve this ranking this year.
There is always room for surprises, for more Irish athletes to take the chance or opportunities that come their way – even if they've never been ranked inside the top 10. Derval O'Rourke did exactly that at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, finishing fourth in the 100m hurdles, and was also World Indoor champion, despite never being ranked by Track & Field News.
London is already close to a sell-out, and if more Irish athletes can feed into that crowd, make it feel like they’re then own, then anything is possible. But of course you have to believe in yourself first.
