Nick Kyrgios slams tennis officials over ridiculousness of Jannik Sinner match

Jannik Sinner is arguably the best player in tennis currently. He is definitely within the top three if nothing else. Avid tennis fans know who is he. He is a 22-year-old player who likes to ski in his spare time and moves around the court as if he is on skates. But does one have to be a tennis fan to know about the Italian?

Nick Kyrgios thinks that those in charge of tennis do not do a good enough job of letting you know about Sinner or any other player. The Australian has a good reason for this. As witnessed at the Miami Open, Sinner recently played a match in front of a very sparse crowd. For a top player who is also fun to watch, the lack of a live audience is defeating.

It likely does not help that a Masters 1000 tournament is being played in a football stadium. As one can see in the photo below, the event has done a decent job of angling the courts to match the seats, but there is also a huge chunk of open space where seats would be normally. But the issue is not just that the Miami Open should have its own venue for such a high-end tournament in 2024, the fact is that tennis does not spend enough time trying to market their great young players.

Nick Kyrgios has correct response to lack of crowd at Jannik Sinner match

This is not about watching or streaming the event, either. The Tennis Channel, for instance, does a fantastic job of producing the introduction of matches to their audience, and they also do a solid job of marketing their own product. But without tennis being correctly involved in how to sell the sport it controls, many would-be fans might not tune in to the Tennis Channel because those people would not know the players well.

A tennis fan on Twitter/X posted the photo of Sinner playing against Tallon Griekspoor. The fan rightfully pointed out that few were in the stadium to watch Jannik Sinner and that this was a bit surprising as the Italian is the reigning Australian Open champion. (To be fair, the same fan later posted, incorrectly, that people aren't there because "people don't want to watch the matches of a player with a boring personality." Sinner? Boring? What?)

But the fan's initial post is what got Nick Kyrgios' attention and moved the Aussie to respond. Kyrgios was simple and succinct in his tweet saying, "Unfortunately tennis hasn’t been marketed or been done the right way." Unfortunately, based on the photo above, Kyrgios is 100 percent correct.

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