Nick Kyrgios has directed heated words at Jannik Sinner before the new season, stunningly promising to cause a riot if they meet at the Australian Open.
Kyrgios will play just his second tournament since the end of 2022 at the Brisbane International, which starts on December 30th. He had been missing with severe wrist and knee issues.
The 2022 Wimbledon runner-up underwent a wrist reconstruction to fix the issue that threatened to end his career. The surgeon only gave Kyrgios a 15% chance of returning to professional tennis before the procedure.
However, Kyrgios has managed to defy those odds and will return in Brisbane in preparation for the Australian Open. The 29-year-old aims to win a Grand Slam during his return to tennis to silence those who have doubted him.
Kyrgios is known as one of the most controversial figures in tennis. That has been shown again with his reaction to Jannik Sinner's doping scandal. The Italian twice tested positive for the banned substance clostebol at the Indian Wells Open.
Although the International Tennis Integrity Agency initially cleared Sinner after a five-month investigation, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
WADA argues that a ban of between one and two years would be appropriate. A verdict from CAS will be reached sometime in 2025, but not before February 11th, because CAS' scheduled cases have not been published until then, and Sinner's did not feature.
Fans and other players' reactions to Sinner's case have been mixed. Andrey Rublev is among those who sympathize with the world No. 1 and have praised him for his high level since discovering the shocking news that he failed two tests.
However, Kyrgios has been Sinner's harshest critic. The Australian thinks all players who test positive for a banned substance should be banned for two years and has repeatedly referred to the Italian as not being a clean player.
In an appearance on the Nothing Major Podcast, Kyrgios spoke about how much he wants to play Sinner at the Australian Open and plans to create a hostile environment to demonstrate his lack of respect for him.
"But I feel like I've got a lot more, I've got something, you know, let's be honest. I just want to go out there and I really want to play Sinner. Like I'm waiting for it man."
"Well, I thought about this and I've been thinking, I've been talking about it a little bit, like if I played him in Australian Open, like I would get every single person in the crowd to just like get on him."
"Like I would just turn it into an absolute riot. Like I would lose all respect, all respect would go out the window and I would just do anything to win."
Kyrgios has previously stated he does not think there is enough needle between players in tennis, and this might be a case of him trying to create additional tension that would undoubtedly draw some attention to the sport.
That is not to say Kyrgios is insincere in his strong views about Sinner's doping case. The Australian could want to draw additional attention to his attempts to beat someone he believes should be banned.
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