Nicolas Mahut says Nick Kyrgios can have an opinion on Jannik Sinner’s doping case but the former doubles world No. 1 also adds that the recent comments made by the Australian were too much and something that crossed the line.
For four months now, the 2022 Wimbledon finalist has been regularly criticizing the handling of the Italian’s case and saying that he shouldn’t be allowed to compete.
And last week, he expressed a desire to play the world No. 1 at the Australian Open. When revealing that, Kyrgios said he would try to turn every crowd member against Sinner to thepoint where he would probably be disrespectful.
“If I played him in Australian Open, like I would get every single person in the crowd to just like get on him. I would just turn into an absolute riot. Like I would lose all respect, would go out the window and would just do anything to win,” the 29-year-old said on the Nothing Major podcast.
Nick Kyrgios© Nothing Major Podcast/Instagram – Fair Use
Mahut: Kyrgios has the right to be opinionated but telling Sinner that was unnecessary
“I don’t like these statements. He has the right to have an opinion on Jannik’s positive test, everyone is free to think what they want, but to inflame the situation like this… Sinner has never disrespected anyone, he is the world No. 1, so it’s unnecessary,” the five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles told Eurosport.
Knowing Kyrgios, he probably meant what he said and if the match happened at the Australian Open, he would indeed try to make it an absolute hell for the defending champion.
So far in their careers, they have met only once as Sinner won their 2022 Miami Masters match in two sets. However, it wasn’t possible for them to meet in 2023 and 2024 since the former world No. 13 was sidelined due to knee and wrist surgeries.
This week, Kyrgios is competing at the World Tennis League and he will also play the Brisbane International before the Happy Slam.
Tennis World USA