Kyrgios Receives Major Praise From Roddick Despite Accusing Him Of Possibly Doping
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Nick Kyrgios recently made a somewhat outrageous comment about Andy Roddick, but that did not stop the 2003 US Open champion from calling him great for tennis.
Kyrgios will play just his second tournament in the last two years at the Brisbane International, beginning on December 30th. He had been sidelined with severe wrist and knee injuries.
The wrist problem was so serious that he needed a wrist reconstruction. Despite being told by a surgeon that he only had a 15% chance of returning to tennis, Kyrgios will make his comeback in a few weeks.
Roddick and Kyrgios have opposing views on the high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner, which have rocked the sport since they were at No. 1 in the WTA and ATP rankings in 2024.
Two tests Sinner took at March's Indian Wells Open came back positive for the banned substance clostebol. The International Tennis Integrity Agency's (ITIA) five-month investigation cleared Sinner of wrongdoing.
However, the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed that ruling, arguing that Sinner bore more negligence than the ITIA found and a ban of one to two years would be appropriate. A ruling on the appeal will be made sometime in 2025.
Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine. She was provisionally suspended on September 12th but had it reversed on October 4th.
Testing proved Swiatek's explanation that melatonin, which is not a prohibited substance, had been contaminated with trimetazidine. The four-time French Open champion provisionally served most of the one-month ban and can freely return to tennis.
Kyrgios has taken a severe, no-nonsense approach to doping. He thinks players should automatically be banned for two years for a positive test and has doubted whether Sinner and Swiatek did not mean to dope.
By contrast, Roddick was more sympathetic, especially to Swiatek. The 2003 US Open winner does not think what the 23-year-old did should be considered doping since she bought a product that was not meant to contain anything prohibited.
One user on X (formerly Twitter) spread the baseless theory that Roddick was more sympathetic to the pair because he doped during his career. Kyrgios responded to the claim by tweeting, "Hahaha, most likely."
Some might have expected a fiery reaction from Roddick to that insinuation, but that was not the case. In an episode of his podcast Served with Andy Roddick, the three-time Wimbledon runner-up outlined why he thinks Kyrgios is great for the sport.
"Kyrgios is great for the sport. I wish he was around more often. I’d love to see him in full flight committing to three years of the right decisions. He’s amazing. He’s one of the only guys I’ve seen that are on par with the big three in terms of talent."
"He has that much talent in his hands, in his tennis IQ, the way he sees the game. I would go back in a heartbeat without thinking twice if I could have his game and my ability to take pain. We would’ve been a good player."
Roddick seems to have either not taken Kyrgios' response to the since-deleted tweet seriously or simply not seen it.
