Word had spread like wildfire and the twitchers were out in force. There had been a sighting of the lesser-spotted Kyrgios on No.3 Court and everyone wanted to catch a glimpse.

The lesser-spotted Kyrgios is a large and powerful bird with distinct markings down the right-hand side (a tattoo sleeve). Native to Australia, it usually migrates north at this time of year to gather ranking points and titles during the northern hemisphere summer before flying south again at the earliest opportunity.

Tennis twitchers had been concerned for its future, though, as there had only been six sightings of this unique creature in the past 18 months – and all of them in its native land. But this past week, the Kyrgios has twice been spotted in SW19 and now it appears to have settled in the third round.

Yes, Nick Kyrgios is back in town and playing only his third event since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Preferring not to risk international travel as the virus spread around the globe, he stayed at home and helped out by delivering food parcels to those in need while Australia locked down. The tennis world could keep spinning without him.

But now, after a year and a half of self-imposed isolation, he feels ready to play. And it seems as if he has never been away. He served his way into the third round with a 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-4 win over Gianluca Mager, a Wimbledon debutant and the world No.77 from Italy. There were 29 aces, 59 unreturned serves; there were jokes with the crowd and a running dialogue with himself. And, of course, there was a certain amount of interaction with the umpire.

At first, it appeared that Kyrgios was just happy to be back. He was enjoying a bit of banter with those sitting at the side of the court, he was applauding his opponent’s aces and winners and he was having a grand old time. He was even acting as butler to Mager, taking the bananas from the fridge and offering them to the Italian before grabbing one for himself.

And then, out of nowhere, the mood changed. He had been making light of the occasional bad bounce and, getting a giggle out of the crowd, he was milking it. “Ooh, that was a nasty one!” he said, hamming it up for his followers. But when the next dodgy bounce caught him unawares, he had one of those “did I really just say that?” moments.

An epithet, short, sharp and industrial by nature, exploded from his lips. Immediately, he held his hands up and apologised with a grimace. He knew he was in trouble. But the damage had been done.

Everyone had heard the offending word and there was nothing the umpire, Marija Cicak, could do about it; she gave him a warning for an audible obscenity. He complained. She just explained firmly and calmly that because everyone had heard it, she had no choice.

He grumbled on, mainly to himself. He complained about the grass (too slow), the bounce (too erratic) and his own complaining (‘talk, talk, talk – all you do is talk after every serve’). When that running commentary became a little fruity in tone, Cicak offered a quiet reminder: another rude word and it will be a point penalty. She said this gently, just reminding him of the rules. She is a very good umpire, is Cicak. And Kyrgios behaved.

He still kept up the chatter but once he had closed out the first set on his second set point, he cheered up immeasurably. Now he was back to the Kyrgios of the first eight games. He kept up a conversation with one lady in the crowd – and gave her a match ball as a lasting souvenir – and went back to praising Mager’s winners and skipped into the third round with a smile and a joke.

There have been times when the lesser-spotted Kyrgios seemed to be an endangered species but the tennis twitchers of SW19 can report that, for the moment at least, this exotic bird is thriving on the courts of the All England Club.