'What's with old players giving opinions?' Kyrgios defends Raducanu

March 28, 2022

ATP Tennis Players, British Tennis Players, Emma Raducanu, Nick Kyrgios, Tennis News, WTA Tennis Players

‘What’s with retired players giving opinions?’ – Nick Kyrgios defends Emma Raducanu from latest criticism

Nick Kyrgios has defended Emma Raducanu from recent criticism levelled at her by retired professionals and feels “she is a far, far bigger name already!”

19-year-old US Open champion Raducanu has been struggling for consistency this year after being blighted by numerous injuries. As a result, she has been knocked out early from most events she has played this year. As such Raducanu has come under increased scrutiny after her exponential rise.

Raducanu recently defended herself against accusations that she cared more about her various brand partnerships than she did about her tennis.

Most recently, former World number five Daniela Hantuchova claimed that Raducanu was losing the respect of her peers after her opening Miami Open loss against Katerina Siniakova.

However, Australian Open doubles champion Nick Kyrgios took to Twitter to defend Raducanu and question why retired professionals give their opinions on current stars. He wrote “what’s with old retired players giving their opinion on our stars now?

“I love A-Rod (Andy Roddick) and I agree we all need to chill with the rackets and all that, but geezus, I read an article about a past female player talking about Raducanu, no offence but she is a far, far bigger name already!”

The first half of the Tweet is referring to 2003 US Open winner Andy Roddick’s Twitter video in which he demonstrated the safest ways to throw rackets and strike balls.

Roddick’s light-hearted video comes amongst an increase in racket abuse. World number three Alexander Zverev was recently defaulted from the Mexican Open, docked all prize money and ranking points earned at the Latin American event and is now under an eight-week suspended ban.

Similarly, Kyrgios himself caused controversy when he threw his racket to the ground and an unfortunate bounce took the racket hurtling towards a ball boy’s head. Kyrgios was subsequently fined $25,000 (£19,000) for the incident.

Moreover, American youngster Jenson Brooksby launched his racket in anger in a similar fashion to Kyrgios, although his racket skidded off the court and almost struck a ball boy’s ankle.

21-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal has also come out and urged the ATP to punish such offences before someone gets seriously injured.