Professional sport must be a beacon when stars make headlines for wrong reasons

So much for the good times. The show will go on for Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon, starting on Wednesday with a quarter-final against Cristian Garin, the first of three hypothetical steps towards a long-shot first grand slam title win. But for now the party, the bunting, the King Nick buzz is over.

Sport loves to spin these stories. Over the past 10 days Kyrgios had seemed to be turning into one of the English summer’s chief objects of fascination, a brilliant, charismatic tennis player; albeit a brilliant, charismatic tennis player with some obvious deference issues, clothing issues, politeness issues, stifled talent issues, and, simply, issues.

Kyrgios is still all of those things, notwithstanding the news overnight from Australia that he has been summonsed by a Canberra court to face a charge of assaulting an ex-girlfriend. According to the Canberra Times the summons “relates to an allegation Kyrgios grabbed former partner Chiara Passari” in December last year.

Kyrgios is, like anyone else, innocent of any charge until a court decides otherwise. The case, if there is to be one, will remain subjudice until that point. Whatever the court of instant public opinion might decide, the only certainty right now is that it is a deeply sad situation for all involved.

Sport just melts away in the face of these issues. There has been a global rise in reported cases of domestic violence from the start of the Covid pandemic. Domestic abuse made up 18% of all offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2021. Those who work in this area suggest that encouraging those who might be victims to come forward is an enduring problem. For this reason alone it is vital to tread carefully, to have a way of