By Scoop Malinowski
Last week former ATP world no. 1, Grand Slam and Olympic champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov told me that the two talented players he ever saw were a pair of unique champions that most people would be surprised to learn.
“Marcelo Rios and Nick Kyrgios are the two most talented players I ever saw,” Kafelnikov said.
This is not an expected or mainstream opinion by Kafelnikov but it is completely logical.
Both Kyrgios and Rios were naturally phenomenally skilled players with elite success. Rios achieved the world no. 1 ranking without winning a Grand Slam (he reached one final in Australia in 1998) and Kyrgios has so many lethal weapons in his arsenal that he managed to beat Federer, Nadal and Djokovic without needing a coach and he also made it to the Wimbledon 2022 final where he dominated and overpowered Djokovic in the first set before fizzling out after an argument with his box early in the second set.
Kafelnikov is a credible judge of tennis talent. The 1999 Australian Open and 1996 French Open singles and doubles king had a 4-2 record vs Federer (from 1999-2002). The Russian also achieved a 6-2 match record vs Rios.
Kafelnikov also was 4-8 vs Andre Agassi and 2-11 vs Pete Sampras. For Kafelnikov to rate Rios and Kyrgios as more talented than players of the caliber of Sampras, Agassi, Federer suggests that there is a significant difference in measuring pure tennis talent with machine like stroke efficiency, vicious fighting spirit and on court stamina and physicality. Raw, pure extraordinary tennis talent does not always come blessed with the other qualities which most or all Grand Slam champions innately possess – obsession, drive, hunger, will to win.
Pancho Gonzales and Jimmy Connors both said: “All the great champions are vicious competitors.”
Perhaps if Rios and Kyrgios were “vicious competitors” like some of their peers and a little less naturally gifted, they may be holding the records that are now owned by Novak Djokovic. But of course, nobody knows these answers for sure. We can only debate and discuss.
Interestingly, both Rios and Kyrgios use Yonex racquets and the two controversial stars were scheduled to play an exhibition together in Chile a few years back but it was canceled due to a Rios injury.
Marcelo Rios · Nick Kyrgios · Yevgeny Kafelnikov · Yonex
