Kyrgios adds more fuel to the fire ahead of 2023 Australian Open

Will Australians support Nick Kyrgios with the same passion as they did at Wimbledon earlier this year following his latest United Cup controversy which has clearly left many, including teammates stunned?

To be honest, it really shouldn’t come as a major shock that Kyrgios has turned his back on representing his country in this new $15 million mixed-gender teams event because he has eyes on winning the Australian Open in Melbourne next month.

His latest drama has again polarized sports fans, sparking more pub and water cooler arguments across the country.

Kyrgios cares little about what his critics think about him, or so he says.

But he couldn’t resist giving them a serve on his private Twitter account and social media where he has close to 600,000 followers posting:

Haha so after all this, all the media, journalism saying how bad I am for the sport, disrespecting the game & just a pure villain, I am going to be the number 1 episode on Netflix… to grow our fan base, basically trying to put tennis on the map again 🤭

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) December 29, 2022

And essentially putting more money in everyone’s pockets that’s involved with tennis, you all look really ridiculous now 🤭🤣 your apology should be as loud as your disrespect was.

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) December 29, 2022

To give Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt and his teammates Alex Di Minaur and Jason Kulbler little or no notice about his withdrawal did not go down well with Australia’s co-captains Hewitt and Sam Stosur.

Hewitt said better communication would have helped the situation.

Kyrgios was scheduled to play his opening match against England’s Cameron Norrie in Sydney last night.

Only hours before he was due on the court he informed officials he was not playing in order to protect an ankle injury before the Australian Open in a few weeks’ time.

Explaining his reasons for pulling out of the United Cup, the 27-year-old said he had informed Tennis Australia Chief executive Craig Tiley and United Cup tournament director Stephen Fallow of his decision, but he did not say when he told them.

Fair enough, the Australian Open is his priority.

Leading online bookmakers have Kyrgios listed on the fourth line of Australian Open betting at $12 – the same odds as world-class Rafael Nadal.

Kyrgios hurt his ankle playing an exhibition match last week and understandably wants to be at his best for the Aussie Open.

But it’s still not a good look to leave it so late to make a decision that affects more people than just himself.

“People underestimate the pressure and the nerves of being part of one of the biggest events of the year,” Kyrgios told The Age on Thursday.

“Not everyone is going to understand or see it from my side, and that is ok,” he added.

Obviously, it isn’t ok, otherwise, why would he post on social media calling for an apology?

To leave it until the eve of the event to tell the Aussie camp he was pulling out minutes before a press conference the day before the event, is poor form.

Surely he knew before Wednesday he wasn’t going to play.

“We literally just found out 10 minutes ago,” said a seemingly bewildered Stosur.

Remember, this is the guy who had the temerity to take a cheap shot at fellow Australian and former world No.1 Ash Barty after she collected a fifth consecutive (John) Newcombe medal as Australia’s best tennis player of 2022.

That time Kyrgios jumped on social media posting a comparison of their playing records in 2022 with the caption: “no respect at all”.

The world No.22 believes he is owed an apology for being painted a villain following his latest controversy.

His track record for playing for his country is not great.

He has sat out Australia’s last three Davis Cup ties and opted not to represent his country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to play in another event.

The other question here to consider is did Kyrgios inform Tennis Australia earlier in the week and they decided to delay any announcement until just before the official press conference to maximize ticket sales which would have been affected had the news broken a few days earlier.

One thing we do know though is Aussies love to support a battler or an underdog.

But you can’t help wondering how much longer they can keep defending Kyrgios just because he is exciting to watch and is certainly not boring.

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