Nick Kyrgios has been embroiled in a few bitter tennis rivalries, but very few saw the one with Stefanos Tsitsipas coming.
In the earlier times, Tsitsipas and Kyrgios appeared to be on really solid footing as several things were connecting them. Both are half-Greek, which matters in the Greek community as they are tight-knit, even across continents and cultures.
Kyrgios has been quite proud of his Greek heritage, with Tsitsipas probably being one of the most proud Greeks out there. They also had somewhat similar bubbly personalities, which got along well.
In recent times, though, things have turned quite sour. They had a very heated battle at the Wimbledon Championships, during which Tsitsipas aimed at Kyrgios after what he perceived were provocations.
Kyrgios asked the umpire to default the Greek, and the battling didn’t stop off the courts. They exchanged quite a few interesting comments, including the mother of Stefanos Tsitsipas calling out Kyrgios for what was perceived as unsportsmanlike conduct.
They have made comments here and there since then, with Kyrgios kind of poking fun at Tsitsipas during a recent Instagram session he had with Jack Sock. The Australian will play at the 2022 Citi Open in Washington, and ahead of that, he did a live video with Sock, in which he spoke about the tournament.
Since doubles were brought up as well Kyrgios recalled the time he played doubles with Tsitsipas, saying that it can’t get any worse than that.
"We’ve got a lot of doubles, we’ve got doubles in DC, which I'm super excited about. I’ve had Stefanos (Tsitsipas) as a partner there, so it can’t get much worse than that."
The comment was followed by laughter by both players, even though Sock said that it was probably time for him to get out of there, seemingly wanting no part of that discussion. It was an interesting development between two very good players.