As one of the talking heads on ESPN noted about Kyrgios not beating Murray - he likes Andy and is good friends with him ( Kyrgios himself has said that Murray's one of his best friends on tour). But...it's not so much the case with the other 3...and that Andy, bless his heart, doesn't really have the stature in the game that Kyrgios seems to have a grudge against and feels the need to try to take down. IIRC this was Chris Fowler on ESPN . He also said there's no edginess to Kyrgios when plays Murray but when he plays Fedalovic - he's acts like he's got an ax to grind... and that none of the 3 understand his "grudge" attitude toward/about them. John McEnroe of course thinks this is the kind of attitude that more players need towards the Big 3 so that they can beat them.
Ok... Since I know reasonably well the posters in the conversation here, I can be more straightforward (I have in mind not only the last posts here but also one new thread opened by Scoop, I won't reply there as do not want to be the party's spoiler all the time, and I know where he is coming from).
The idea that Kyrgios only gives his best against the big 3 is the greatest piece of tennis fiction I ever seen. Really, I give more credit to the Cali's notion that Nalbandian is the greatest player of all time than this (I really do).
Without even mentioning that it is very common for one player to look better when facing a superior adversary, without mentioning that in all losses to Nadal that idea showed to be completely false, there is the context of his matches against the big 3 -- he played Djokovic probably in his worst spell since 2011, he beat Federer when he was far away from his prime, and he beat Nadal (one time) on grass (were he lost to a bunch of guys). It is still an accomplishment what he did? Hell it is. But -- and this is the point -- it is far away from beating "prime big 3" playing their best. He would be 0-9 or 1-8 against big 3 playing their A- games.
I can not even start to answer posts as the OP in the other thread I mentioned -- where is suggested that Kyrgios is taking the game to unprecedented levels... really? While not being able to fire a decent forehand if it is not almost at his shoulders level? What bothers me is that I
like the guy, I think he is a good player, I like his focus and his fearless attitude, but this giant absurd over-hype really, really, REALLY drives me mad. This kind of over-hype, in fact, will probably hurt Kyrgios himself, if it becomes widespread.
