As Nick Kyrgios stared down a 2-5 double mini-break deficit in his blockbuster third round against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Rod Laver Arena, it was all too easy to hesitate for a second, to question whether the narrative surrounding Australia’s number one male player was in line with ocular reality. Throughout the build-up and the opening days of the Australian Open, the world had been promised something different. He arrived in Melbourne off the back of a cool title-winning display in Brisbane. He was calmer. He was happily reconciled with his girlfriend. He was focused. He was a new Nick Kyrigos and we were all better for it.

For much of the match, the narrative bore out. The quality between Australian and Frenchman veered between solid and shining, but the contrasting ways in which instinct bore out on the court made it unmissable. As Tsonga hunted down every opportunity to sprawl into the net, Kyrgios spun forehands to the Tsonga backhand, using the entire width of the court to open up space. Tsonga’s feathery hands met its match in the sheer variety of ways the Australian attempted to counter them.

But as the fourth set extended on Laver, an assured, opportunistic display that pushed Kyrgios to a two sets to one lead seemed to slowly make way for something familiar. He lost his cool: when his face wasn’t contorted into a picture of rage, he was constantly distracted, one moment castigating his team for their limited noise then telling them to be quiet. It had been coming. Already in the second set, with his legs heavy and his mind wandering, after losing his serve, he threw his head back, looked to his entourage and yelled: “I shouldn’t have f—–g played doubles.”

The transformative moment of the match happened for Kyrgios at its most desperate. Down 2-5 and heading rapidly for a fifth set, he made a rare series of sensible, rational decisions that won him the match. From 2-5, Kyrgios ensured that he struck his backhand return to Tsonga’s backhand wing at all costs and then he watched as Tsonga’s infamous backhand crumbled immediately. At 3-5, he scrambled to handle a 207kmh bomb down the T, before recovering, nailing a low backhand passing shot straight at the fast approaching Frenchman. At 4-5, it was a serve and volley that forced a rushed Tsonga backhand return error. At 5-5, he a hit a silky drop shot before following it into the net. Kyrgios took the match by the scruff of the neck and closed it with merit.

When Tsonga’s final forehand hit the net, Kyrgios pumped his fist to the ground and the crowd roared. Minutes later, he conspired with Jim Courier to charm the Australian public, his personality seeming to resonate with onlookers in a way it probably never had. The topic came to the presence of Will Smith and his love for the icon.

“Honestly, when I saw him out here I was so nervous,” Kyrgios said. “No joke. I was like, oh my god, people think I’m cool, but I just wanted him to think I’m the coolest person ever.”

After endearing himself to the crowd, later he was adamant that public perception didn’t affect him, that he wouldn’t change himself regardless of the environment.

“It’s not something I wake up and I'm like, Look, today I'm going to try to change the perception,” he said. “I've always played the same way. Nothing has changed. I've always been emotional. I showed emotion out there tonight. Yeah, I feel like I've always been a caring person. I guess it's just how you guys perceive it.”

There was plenty to like about Nick Kyrgios’ victory over Tsonga. There’s the fact that, unlike most of the Australian’s most spectacular victories in his young career, his escape was engineered by neither grit nor any singular spectacular moments. He was smart and channeled his composure.

But the impression he left was a reminder that all these facets of his personality are quite authentic. Kyrgios is equal parts moody, emotional, difficult, passionate, uninterested and endlessly creative. In his defense, his contradictions are often painted as some kind of unique personal quality, but really that’s just how humans function. Soon enough, he’ll provide more reasons to doubt, to question whether, perhaps even in his fourth round against Dimitrov. My hope is that he’ll continue to do that, and that although people will sometimes be frustrated, and they will doubt, nobody will ever ask for a new Nick Kyrgios again.