'He Seems To Take Every Other Year Off': Kyrgios Criticized After Hinting Early Retirement

| by Balasz Virag

Nick Kyrgios has been criticized by former ATP player Jimmy Arias after his comment about not playing for much longer.

Kyrgios has always been quite open about his lack of dedication to tennis. It's only recently that he's really taken it seriously, which is what allowed him to put together the successful 2022 campaign. The Australian, though, doesn't plan on pushing himself too far.

He recently commented that he would not be playing into his thirties because the tennis schedule is crazy. It's not a shocking statement, as he never really talked about playing for a very long time. It was always about maximizing his time and then retiring and never coming back.

The sport’s crazy. The schedule is out of control. No f**king change [I play till I am 33], there’s no way. There's no chance. I'm playing till 33? Insane! I'm not playing till 33. I promise you when I'm gone, you'll never see me again.

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Former world number 5 Jimmy Arias had some things to say on the Tennis Channel, especially about Kyrgios talking about the tennis schedule. To him, it made no sense for him to talk about it because he seemingly takes every year off according to him.

I don't know what he's talking about when he says this schedule is out of control. He's played one match this year. He seems to take every other year off, so he should be able to play for another 25 years.

"It's just interesting to listen to him talk, let's see what happens when he's 33. But as we're talking right now, I don't know [if] he's gonna play five more matches [this year]. He's played once so far this year. I'm not sure [his] wrist, knee [or] his tattoo is hurting him too much [from playing] Pokemon maybe. I don't know."

The comment seems to allude to Kyrgios entirely skipping over the clay season for many years now which essentially gives him a huge break in the middle of the season. We will see how serious he is about stepping away from the sport in the future but for now, he seems to want to play on for a bit more.

He said that he would have retired if he won Wimbledon and then repeated that for the Australian Open as well. Perhaps after the US Open then.

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