Nick Kyrgios under fire from Sara Errani ahead of ATP return

Former doubles No.1 Sara Errani has labelled Nick Kyrgios “self-centred” for his comments regarding Jannik Sinner’s doping suspension.

“I don’t know him [Kyrgios] personally,” she said on Wednesday.

“Lately he’s made a few bad and unfortunate comments: in that case I didn’t like him that much.

“I’m not just talking about what he said about Sinner.

“He made some rather strong statements.

“Then when you’re not around and you play less…

“He seemed self-centred and I didn’t like him that much.”

Errani did confess that although she and Kyrgios are polar opposites, she does enjoy watching the Wimbledon finalist play.

“He has a very strong personality and I’ve always liked him,” she said.

“Watching him play is a show.

“Thinking about my character, I shouldn’t like him, but I like him.

The Australian returns to professional tennis next week at the Brisbane International after a lengthy injury layoff, having played just three matches on the ATP Tour since making the quarter-finals of the US Open in 2022.

Kyrgios has commented on Sinner’s doping scandal multiple times during his injury recovery, claiming the world No.1 should not be playing after he tested positive for clostebol on two occasions earlier this year.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency cleared Sinner of any wrongdoing, but Kyrgios believes inconsistencies in the way players are treated mean the 23-year-old should have received a lengthy ban.

Errani herself believes that there is an issue with the doping investigation process.

“The Sinner’s doping case? We talk about it among ourselves,” she said.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not easy, every case has its nuances and it’s not possible to generalise.

“You have to know how everything went, it’s difficult.

“You have to improve the timing because there are athletes who waited months and months; while others solved it in two or three days.”

Despite Kyrgios’ lack of court-time and the negative attention surrounding him, tennis bookmakers have the Australian as a contender at the upcoming Australian Open.

The 29-year-old holds the seventh line of betting at PlayUp, sitting on $41 alongside the likes of Jack Draper, Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

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