Not until she received a phone call from the Governor-General did Nick Kyrgios' mum fully realise what her son had achieved at Wimbledon.
"He said 'on behalf of 23 million Australians, I would just like to thank Nick'," an emotional Norlaila recalled of her conversation with Peter Cosgrove after the teenager's fourth-round win over Rafael Nadal.
"I was just beside myself.
"He's now being noticed by everyone. I think the prime minister tweeted as well."
While Kyrgios' dream debut at Wimbledon ended with a quarter-final defeat to Canada's Milos Raonic, his mother said he'd already achieved his dream - which was to play at the grasscourt grand slam and beat the world No.1.
"I think he needed a week to absorb the fact that he had beaten Nadal," she told media outside her family home in Canberra on Thursday.
"I'm happy for him.
"I'm actually relieved, in a way, that now it's not so tense. Everything was so tense. It was very tense.
"It's a long road.
"Never let die, that boy."
Norlaila Kyrgios said she had been waiting for a moment like this to come but, admittedly, not so soon.
"It's earlier than I had expected. I have been waiting for it. But you can't prepare for this moment.
"I want us all to enjoy it together.
"His dad will come home (from London) in the next couple of days, because he has to go to work as well. And (sister) Hali will get back to what she does in London.
"(And then) Nick gets home, which my guess is in about two weeks.
"I want him to come home, just to have a bit of rest - play basketball over there, get all his friends here."
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