FOR those who have spent the last decade or so complaining that tennis just doesn’t have characters like it used to, Nick Kyrgios is here to rectify that. Well, sort of. The Australian has certainly attracted much attention since he broke onto the scene in 2014, becoming the first player since 2004 to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals on his debut.

Since then though, the headlines he has attracted have been more for his outrageous behaviour than his tennis. He marked his card by making lewd remarks to Stan Wawrinka about the Swiss’ girlfriend last year, and then last week the Australian tanked in quite remarkable fashion in a match against Mischa Zverev in Shanghai.

He stopped trying during rallies, put little effort into his groundstrokes and serve and, in one point, began walking towards his chair before Zverev had even hit his shot. Afterwards, Kyrgios admitted that he “took the easy way out”.

At the start of this week, the ATP announced that they were to fine Kyrgios $41,500 as well as banning him for 8 weeks, although that suspension could be reduced to only three weeks if he agrees to enter a "plan of care", which basically means seeing a sports psychologist. When Kyrgios’s ban was initially announced, it seemed that he would take the ATP’s offer of help, meaning that he would be back on tour by November 7. However, during a twitter Q&A on Wednesday, Kyrgios was asked whether he did intend to meet with a sports psychologist. “Probs not”, he replied.

If Kyrgios is, indeed, shunning the ATP’s offer of a reduced suspension, he will not be eligible to play a tour match until the day before the Australian Open begins in January. Considering his past record of stubbornness, a U-turn appears unlikely.

It would be reductive, though, to merely brand the Australian a spoilt brat and to write him off. Yes, he’s arrogant and petulant and, at times, completely out of order. But he is, nevertheless, one of the most talented players on the Tour; he has reached a world No.14 ranking and he has been touted by many current and former players as a future Grand Slam champion.

So are Kyrgios’s behaviour problems fixable? He is 21 years old so, while he is not yet a fully matured athlete, neither is he a kid any more. He is a fascinating subject to observe; his tanking in Shanghai came immediately after he won the biggest title of his career at the Japan Open. He has reached the world’s top 15 yet proclaims to not like tennis all that much and wishes that he could, instead, have been a basketball player. Kyrgios has said that he could reach the top of the sport but he doesn’t know if he wants to put in the effort that is needed.

There are some who think that Kyrgios is a lost cause; another of those athletes who had the talent to make it but never had the mentality and commitment that is imperative to success at the very top. But there are others, including myself, who believe that Kyrgios could still turn his career into one worthy of Hall of Fame entry.

Firstly, a love of the sport is not a prerequisite for success; Andre Agassi has famously said that he hated tennis yet he became one of the greatest players to have ever picked up a racquet. Secondly, mental fragility is not necessarily a lifelong trait. Snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan has many similarities with Kyrgios – the Englishman has said in the past that he had no desire to play competitions, he has stopped trying during matches and he has given less than his full commitment to his sport at times. Yet he has learned to harness that mental brittleness and has become one of the best snooker players of all time.

Interestingly, a major change in O’Sullivan’s attitude came when he began working with the widely-lauded psychiatrist, Steve Peters, who has also worked with British Cycling to help the GB squad become the dominant nation in track cycling.

If Kyrgios can find a mentor – be it a psychiatrist, a sports psychologist or even an ex-player – he could be transformed. But the vital part of the process is that he must want to change. Sports psychology is all but useless unless an athlete buys into it.

At times, Kyrgios indicates that he does want to make it to the top of tennis, at other times though, it appears that he couldn’t care less.

A change in attitude can be as simple as flicking a switch if someone can press the right buttons within the Australian. Kyrgios deserves to be hammered for his past behaviour – but it doesn’t mean that he can never change. O’Sullivan changed, as did Agassi. Who’s to say that Kyrgios won’t? And tennis would be all the richer for it.