Tennis firebrand Kyrgios is an undoubted talent – ranked No14 in the world – but keeps falling foul of the game’s authorities with his latest indiscretion seeing him banned for eight weeks and urged to see a psychiatrist while also fined $25,000 (Dh92,000) for a perceived lack of effort in a 6-3, 6-1 defeat to Mischa Zverev at the Shanghai Masters last week.
Rotterdam Open director Richard Krajicek also confirmed this week that the 21-year-old will miss February’s tournament because he will instead be playing in the NBA’s all-star celebrity game.
It is behaviour Matthews, nicknamed ‘Bling’ due to his love of designer jewellery, can relate to.
“It’s hard to believe I’ve got this far in my career,” said the Orica–BikeExchange rider who finished fourth at the Road World Championships in Doha last Sunday. “I never even thought about being a cyclist. I was just running around on my BMX or motocross bike but never really thought about cycling.
“Once I changed to cycling I met a whole new group of people and started getting pretty good. I met a new group of friends which made me the person I am now.
“I was probably heading in the wrong direction before I was a cyclist, I was becoming a bit of a bad boy, so it’s nice to have these group of guys around me now.
“With what’s happening with Nick now, I definitely think that could have been me. If I was still hanging around with the group of guys I was then, yeah, me and Nick would have gone hand in hand. Cycling definitely saved me.”
Whereas his own trajectory has risen sharply since deciding to focus all his energy and talent on forging a successful cycling career while Kyrgios appears in danger of squandering his gifts, Matthews admitted he has always had a large network of support to turn to.
Homelife is something deeply important to Matthews, so much so he once dedicated his first ever stage win at the Tour de France this year, to his wife and his dog Geegee.
“I think I turned over a new leaf and I needed to keep working towards this because you get a lot of support in Australia if you’re a cyclist,” added the Canberra native who will move to Giant-Alpecin for the 2017 season.
“There’s really good support staff around Canberra where I’m from and we have big champions in Canberra like Michael Rogers and (Orica team-mate) Mathew Hayman so they’re good guys to look up to.
“They come home during the off-season and I go training with them. It’s nice to see those guys and now I’m in the same team as Mat so it’s pretty cool.
“I’ve got my wife and my family supporting me in this job too and it’s something I really enjoy.
“It’s not something I do because you get paid to do it. I’m going to keep doing it until I don’t like it anymore and I’m enjoying the sport so much that I just can’t stop. Hopefully I can keep pushing myself.”
Matthews finished 48th in Friday’s hectic finale, having finished three seconds off the pace in 44th on Thursday’s ADNOC Stage.
He still can’t quite believe where he is now compared to where he could have found himself. And he added that he not only wants to be competing alongside the likes to cycling legends Mark Cavendish and Alberto Contador – but beating them.
“These guys were already Grand Tour stage winners before I was pro so I was watching them in the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta and now I’m racing alongside them in the same races – it’s pretty special,” added Matthews. “Just standing here next to Alberto Contador, I have to pinch myself every so often.
“All my friends and I used to watch them back home on the TV and now I’m in the same races, so it’s definitely really special.”
