"Have a look to see who's sitting in the top 10 and see how they handle those situations. Do they ever get to that level [of agitation]?" asks former player-turned coach Mark Woodforde. "Maybe the one person that you could probably point towards is, say, Andy Murray. But there are times in those big matches when it doesn't help him, either."

Now working temporarily with French veteran Nicolas Mahut, Woodforde said the music-prompted meltdown during the second set of Friday night's 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 loss to sixth seed Tomas Berdych was a distraction that appeared to contribute to the volatile 20-year-old's grand slam demise.

"That third set, the composure was terrific, and he played great tennis. That for me speaks volumes," said Woodforde, the winner of 17 grand slam doubles and mixed titles, and former Australian Open singles semi-finalist. "When he's composed he's such a dangerous player. Like a lot of us, when we do get a little rattled, things fall apart.

"He didn't seem to serve as well when he was edgy. It's OK to be edgy when you're nervous, but perhaps that's how he shows it. With the nerves, he just gets a little vocal. The good thing is he's still a pup. I think it's still a process for him, and so you can always make amends. Sure, he can get better at everything."

As Jim Courier noted during the Channel Seven commentary: "It's a steep hill, the learning curve." Music? Puh. The four-time major-winning American said he would have loved to see how Kyrgios would have coped at the US Open back when players on court three had to hit through a haze of smelly hamburger smoke.

Former Davis Cup coach Josh Eagle saw a player who was agitated, then distracted. "That really hurt his game. It didn't help his performance," Eagle said on Fox Sports. "He used up far too much energy, negative energy, and he looked exhausted in the end."

Yet some theorise that pumped-up is the state in which Kyrgios performs best, Thanasi Kokkinakis saying from the player box during the match that he is always trying to calm his friend down, "while his brother's next to me, going nuts and giving him so much energy. It's tough to contrast that, but that's when he plays his best."

Having admitted it is not productive to be playing angry, Kyrgios, too, is not sure which way is best. "I maybe walked out there too serious," he said later. "Maybe walked out there trying to focus too much on what I had to do. I probably should just go out there and try to enjoy myself, have fun, not take it so seriously, probably like the third set."

Ex-doubles star Rennae Stubbs, who also struggled with her emotions during a long playing career, knows how it can be. No stones being thrown from this glass house, but some understanding offered. "He knows he's hurting himself. Trust me, I'm quite sure that Nick walks away and thinks 'maybe I wish I hadn't acted like that?'

"He may in some instances say that he doesn't care what people think, but I think deep down inside he does. I think he's actually a pretty sensitive guy, and sometimes some of his outbursts are just his way of coping with the situation, and he just has that personality that it's either hot or cold, up or down, happy or sad, there's no real in between, and I think it's really hard for him to understand where is the optimum.

"He's so young still, mentally. Give him two or three years and those things will be less. We don't want him to lose his personality, but it is really hard to control when you are all over the place. I don't think he knows what is the perfect level for him. Is it relaxed and playful? Is it a little bit angry, or a little bit on edge? Or is it pretty mellow? I don't think that he really knows where it is. He doesn't know his own identity."

Experienced sports psychologist Jeff Bond, now working with Daria Gavrilova, says the challenge is not to smother a player's aggression or natural instincts, but to focus the energy in the right direction. "We've got the classic case of a highly talented athlete who, when he turns it on is unbeatable, but struggles to find consistency, and a lot of it's to do with emotions and levels of intensity.

"The crowd love it of course, because he's unpredictable, you never know what's coming next, and sometimes it's absolute brilliance, and sometimes it's really odd behaviour. But how do you put a mature head on young shoulders without crushing the personality? That's the thing you've got to be careful of."