Nick Kyrgios must be enjoying being a bad boy of tennis. Someone needs to do it. Jelena Ostapenko appears to have that label held down on the WTA side, but she's at least been somewhat successful. Kyrgios hasn't.
The shame is that he is so good during the times he comments on the sport. He obviously understands tennis well, even if he clearly struggles with the motivation to play. Availability is a skill, too, and the Australian has been hurt seemingly so much that he has proven he cannot overcome his injuries.
Maybe he doesn't want to. He wants to find ways to make as much money as possible (nothing wrong with that) while not playing. He also faces a lot of criticism about his approach to tennis and his mercurial attitude. Kyrgios also received some backlash after he was involved in an exhibition match with Aryna Sabalenka, labeled the Battle of the Sexes.
Nick Kyrgios goes classless before unsurprisingly losing a match
A clearly out-of-shape Kyrgios defeated Sabalenka, the top-ranked player on the WTA tour, 6-3 6-3, so what exactly the match did for the perception of tennis, specifically women's tennis, is unknown, but probably not good. Former WTA No. 29 Sarah Pitkowski obviously wasn't a fan of the match or Kyrgios in general.
Talking on RMC Sport about the match, Pitkowski said, "Nick Kyrgios’ attitude and behavior were absolutely detestable. The guy is detestable. He’s so arrogant, it’s the worst. He’s doing more harm to men’s tennis than Sabalenka, who’s trying to play seriously against a pathetic guy who’s just trying to revive his career when all he does is provoke."
To be fair to Pitkowski, that is a pretty keen summation of how Nick Kyrgios has gone about his career and his social media posts about tennis. He is often antagonistic, seemingly seeking out spats to have online. He will never be viewed as one of the classiest players.
In response to Pitkowski's critique, Kyrgios responded simply on X by writing, "Who."
The truth is that lots of people know who Pitkowski is and respect what she has to say. That will likely continue well after Kyrgios's career is done.
He is attempting yet another comeback, but who knows how long it will last. He entered the Brisbane International in hopes, one can assume, of being in better shape for the Australian Open. Unsurprisingly, the current No. 670 on the ATP tour (Nick Kyrgios) lost his first-round match to No. 58 Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-3 6-4. So much for Kyrgios proving he is ready to play again.