‘Tennis has done a really poor job’ – Nick Kyrgios slams sport’s Federer, Nadal and Djokovic obsession
Nick Kyrgios believes that tennis has not done enough to showcase talent other than Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic and that the sport could suffer soon as a consequence.
As we all know, the ‘Big Three’ have dominated both the competition and media attention of tennis over the past decade and a half with 60 Major titles between them and countless global fans.
But Kyrgios thinks that tennis has set itself up to fail by putting too much attention into the trio of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.
“I just think that tennis has done a really poor job with accepting personalities in the past,” Kyrgios explained after winning his third round doubles match alongside friend and compatriot Thanasi Kokkinakis.
“I think they’ve only really marketed three players for the last decade, and now it’s kind of caught up with them.
“Hence they’ve tried to push some of the ‘Next Gen’ guys, [and] I think some of them are really exciting.
“I really like [Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov], I think they can really do some special things in the sport.
“But, tennis has really struggled to embrace different personalities.”
One example of just how attractive clashing on-court personalities can be to fans of the sport is the match that Kyrgios played with world number two and US Open champion Daniil Medvedev in the second round of this year’s Australian Open.
Kyrgios was quick to point out how much the crowd enjoyed the battle between himself and the Russian, driving home that he thinks the sport needs more of that energy.
“Look at the match [between] me and Medvedev,” he began.
“You couldn’t have two [more] polar opposite personalities going up against [each other].
“But the actual quality of tennis was still [at] a pretty good level I thought, and it was fun.
“[That] match was fun to watch and I think tennis needs to just push that, a lot, otherwise it’s in trouble.”
Kyrgios continues to entertain the Melbourne crowds, as he and Kokkinakis take on Tim Puetz next in the doubles quarter-finals.
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