He's playing on less than one leg but Rafael Nadal shouldn't expect any favours from a win-at-all-costs Nick Kyrgios in Friday's blockbuster Wimbledon semi-final.
Even Nadal's family pleaded with the great Spanish warrior to stop as he battled a painful abdominal injury during a super-human five-set comeback win over American Taylor Fritz on Wednesday.
The gladiatorial victory set up a Friday night show-stopper with Kyrgios barely a month after Nadal conceded he was touch and go to make the Wimbledon start line after capturing a mind-boggling 14th French Open crown while carrying a chronic foot injury.
It will be the third episode in their enthralling All England Club series after Kyrgios famously cut down Nadal on his teenage debut in 2014 before the 22-times grand slam champion levelled up with a four-set second-round revenge mission in 2019.
"Probably be the most-watched match of all time. I would argue that," Kyrgios said of the latest instalment.
"A mouth-watering kind of encounter for everyone around the world - two completely different personalities.
"I feel like we respect the hell out of each other, though."
But there's a limit to respect and, unless he has a change of heart, Kyrgios will do whatever it takes to conquer Nadal again and fulfil his dream of making a Wimbledon final.
"I've never accepted losing. I hate it so much it eats me up," Kyrgios revealed on the Turn Up The Talk podcast.
Hence why tennis's most polarising figure admitted he'd "crossed the line" in previous matches with Nadal and the other two members of the sport's big three - his potential Wimbledon final opponent Novak Djokovic and his idol Roger Federer.
"There are times when I cross the line and I'm not going to say that I've always been a good role model for kids watching," Kyrgios said, as he tries to set up a date with Djokovic or British ninth seed Cameron Norrie in Sunday's must-see final..
"Sometimes I do cross the line - but that's just my passion. That's my emotion. I am not able to control my emotions like Roger Federer - but who is?
"It's like, literally, there's a handful of guys in the whole world who can handle their emotions like that and they're different breeds, and I'm not like that."
Australia's 1987 Wimbledon Pat Cash this week accused his hot-headed countryman of "cheating"and "manipulating" his opponents and taking tennis "to the lowest level" during his run to the last four.
When asked if there were certain players he'd tried to rattle on court, Kyrgios conceded on the podcast that he'd most definitely tried to get under the skin of the big three.
"Oh yeah, I feel like the majority of the tennis tour when they play me is very confused sometimes with what's going on," he said.
"I always have the analogy that when I'm playing Djokovic or Federer or Nadal, they're so used to have such professional kind of standards.
"Their European country clubs that they play out of are so clean and proper that, if you like my two courts that are around my house - they are literally roads with cracks in it, and weed.
"So I'm just trying to take them ... if I was to play them there, what are my best chances to win.
"So I just feel I to just take them to Watson, back to the streets of Watson (in Canberra) and try and play that game style where I'd be talking with my brother and competing.
"And it does stir them up!"
Australian Associated Press
