"Nick is not the bully, I'm the bully" - Kyrgios' basketball mate speaks up
ATPTuesday, 05 July 2022 at 08:00
Updated at Saturday, 25 January 2025 at 16:03
Nick Kyrgios was accused of being a bully by Stefanos Tsitsipas after their match at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, but one of his friends defended him.
First, the Greek player got a question about his opponent during a post-match press conference. Tsitsipas called Kyrgios "a bully," and soon after he left the press conference room, the Australian player entered it and got a chance to react to his opponent's claims.
He stated that Tsitsipas was "just soft" and said that when he plays basketball in Australia, he plays against "true competitors."
"When I’m back home and you see me every day and who I’m competing with on the basketball court, these guys are dogs. The people that I’m playing at Wimbledon..."
"He’s (Tsitsipas) just soft. To come in here and say I bullied him, that’s just soft. We’re not cut from the same cloth. I go up against guys who are true competitors."
One of the friends who Kyrgios plays basketball with, Chol Adup, confirmed what the 2022 Australian Open doubles champion was saying after the match against Tsitsipas when speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald.
"When I first saw him, I thought ‘this bloke can’t be serious, he’s a tennis player not a basketball player. But he’s actually pretty good at basketball. Me and Nick we fight all the time, man. What Nick is seeing from other people at Wimbledon is nothing compared to KGV, man."
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"If people see what we do on campus, they would be shocked. Nick is not the bully. I’m the bully. When Nick’s around us, bro, the amount of stuff we say to him ... we go hard at him."
"Some people might want to be cool with Nick and not go at him because he’s famous. But for us, it’s different. We trash-talk him. We don’t sit back because he’s the big dog."
"When he’s there he’s not the big dog because we go at each other. None of us care that he’s Nick Kyrgios. We know who he is, but on the court, to me, everyone is the same."
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