The Dog & Fox is used to being at the heart of things during Wimbledon fortnight. According to a blackboard outside the front door, it goes through 225 kegs of beer and two tons of strawberries each tournament. But the pub has received even more attention than usual this week after Nick Kyrgios popped in for a drink.
According to eyewitness reports, he was at the bar till 11.30pm on Wednesday. This is not necessarily unusual for the Australian, who was seen drinking shots at the Dog & Fox the night after he lost to Kei Nishikori last year. That was the night after a match, however, this was the night before.
Kyrgios went on to lose his second‑round encounter with Rafael Nadal on Thursday evening. This was perhaps as was to be expected, booze or no booze. Nadal is the third seed, Kyrgios has struggled to replicate – in any grand slam – the form that saw him beat the Spaniard here five years ago. But the mercurial nature of Kyrgios’s performance, which ranged not only from the sublime to the ridiculous but the comic to the tragic (in the sense of revealing ingrained flaws), was something of the man in essence. It helped explain why people are not only fascinated by him but feel affection too.
Certainly, by all accounts, the patrons in the Dog & Fox enjoyed their time with Kyrgios. There were selfies and tweets with multiple exclamation marks. The following morning, one anonymous bartender corroborated the appearance, saying: “We want him to come back, we like him coming here. It’s always fun when he comes in. He’s really friendly, he’s really open to talk to people. He integrates with normal people, that’s why they like him.”
By the time the Guardian popped into the pub at lunchtime the staff were saying nothing. They wouldn’t even admit to what drink Kyrgios had ordered. Staff said such privacy is something they would grant any customer, though it seemed likely this was the first time they’ve ever had to enact that policy.
Come the evening, Kyrgios provided three hours of serving power, exquisite technique (in the main) and the kind of shot selection other players don’t seem even to consider, never mind execute. There was also the moaning, the missed drop shots, the needless aggression and an awful lot of skipping. It was hard to say that this was in any way a diminished performance. In fact, it felt a bit like he had raised his game. But either way, Kyrgios was out.