Tennis

John McEnroe: I’m the perfect nutcase to coach Nick Kyrgios

From the original bad boy of tennis to its present-day worst: You can be serious.

John McEnroe has made an indirect offer to coach volatile Australian phenom Nick Kyrgios, saying, in effect: Who better to get inside Kyrgios’ noggin than another famed hothead?

“The guy that would make the most sense on paper would be Nick Kyrgios because we are two head cases, but mentally we are a bit wacky,” McEnroe said this week at the French Open, via the Australian Associated Press.

“A job of a coach is figuring out what makes that person tick, it’s not a case of him adapting to me — it doesn’t work like that. It’s more that you have to adapt to that person. It really depends on the person.”

In his role as a television analyst, McEnroe, perhaps recognizing his younger self in the meltdowns, has been deeply critical of Kyrgios’ antics — his reckless showmanship, his habit of giving up on matches. But McEnroe is also a believer, calling the 22-year-old Kyrgios the “best positioned” of the next generation in men’s tennis (read: not Federer, Nadal, Murray, Djokovic or Wawrinka) to win Wimbledon next month.

“Athletically, you can see it’s there. He has the talent, you have to get yourself in great shape and mentally — it’s the biggest hurdle for anyone,” McEnroe said. “When I watch him, I get really concerned as I have already seen it happen where he has gone off and disappeared in a match.

“Can you just change? I hope he can learn because he is young and people are trying to get behind him, the ATP Tour people are. I want it to happen.”

Kyrgios, now ranked No. 19 in the world, mostly has played without a coach in his career, though he hired Sebastien Grosjean last month on a part-time basis. McEnroe has begun to dabble more in coaching — he steered Milos Raonic to last year’s Wimbledon final — as it becomes more acceptable to undertake in short bursts.

“It was only in the last five years that we talked about players starting asking potential coaches to travel part-time, 10 weeks or less. Then it’s like, ‘Ooh, that’s something that could be tailor-made for me,” McEnroe said. “That’s something I think could and probably will happen in the future. … It is something that is very satisfying if you can take them to another level.”