Stefanos Tsitsipas' feud with Nick Kyrgios has been palpable for a while, but he certainly regrets some of the things he did as part of that.
Tsitsipas and Kyrgios didn't always fight each other but they weren't particularly the greatest friends either. There was always some tension there as both players are distinct personalities.
The tipping point came at Wimbledon two years ago when they played a pretty heated match that featured a lot of controversy. Kyrgios ended up winning the match because Tsitsipas really flamed out.
He won the opening set but then allowed Kyrgios to get into his head with all the antics and talking, and the feud was born. It continued in the press conferences after that and for a while, but eventually, it cooled down a little bit.
In a talk with The Guardian, Tsitsipas admitted that he regrets certain things, most notably his comment about Kyrgios being uneducated.
"I definitely made a mistake there describing the situation. I have lots of respect for NBA athletes and I love basketball. It’s my favourite sport to watch. Perhaps what I meant is that when [Kyrgios] trash-talks he follows an etiquette tennis is not used to."
"It reminded me of the NBA and how LeBron James and Kobe Bryant trash-talked each other all the time. He is also trying to bring all that basketball attire to tennis which is zero problem. So things are good right now."
His comments make sense in context, but in the heat of the moment, he clearly went about it the wrong way. Trash-talking is common in many sports but not really in tennis.
It might be one day as the sport keeps evolving from how the game has been played. We've seen even players argue for allowing crowd noise during points, which seems unlikely to stick around, but it's clear that times are changing.
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