Nick Kyrgios’s simmering frustration with Jannik Sinner, ignited by the recent doping saga, continues to intensify. Since Sinner’s positive test for Clostebol in August, Kyrgios has been a vocal critic. Despite Sinner being cleared by the ITIA with no fault or negligence found, Kyrgios remains unconvinced and maintains a strong stance against him. He views the situation as “disgusting” for the sport. Novak Djokovic’s recent comments on Sinner have reignited the controversy, providing Kyrgios with further ammunition for his criticism.
Ahead of his Brisbane International campaign, Djokovic engaged with media to answer questions on various topics. One of them happened to be regarding his friend Kyrgios’ repeated criticism of Jannik Sinner amid the ongoing doping case. Defending the Aussie, the former World No.1 said, “I mean, it’s not pleasant (being targeted by Kyrgios), but at the same time, we live in a world where everybody has the right, particularly on social media, to express themselves,” reported Brisbane Times on Sunday.
“Nick has been really vocal about things, and particularly the doping case with Jannik – and he has some fair points when it comes to the transparency and inconsistency with protocols and with case-to-case comparables,” he added.
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Novak Djokovic was disappointed at the fact that people were kept in the dark for months about Sinner’s investigation and that anti-doping cases involving Iga Swiatek and Simona Halep had cast a shadow over the sport. “I’m not questioning whether (Sinner) took the banned substance intentionally or not…But I’ve been really frustrated, as most of the other players, to see that we were kept in the dark for five months since he was receiving that news. It’s not a good image for, and not a good look for, our sport (with the high-profile cases), he concluded.
Seeing his friend standing by his side, Kyrgios couldn’t control himself from giving Djoker a huge shoutout. Sharing his reaction, he simply wrote “Goat has spoken” in a post, dated December 29.
Kyrgios’ confidence will be sky high after Novak’s comments on the entire situation. It seems they are already jelling well ahead of their on-court partnership at the Brisbane International. The Aussie is already pumped up to be on the same side of the net with the Serbian.
Nick Kyrgios shares true feelings on partnering with Novak Djokovic at the Brisbane International
More than a week ago, the former World No.13 confirmed his doubles partnership with Djokovic. They are set to play their first match together in the Brisbane International on Monday. The duo will go against Austria’s Alexander Erler and German Andreas Mies. Ahead of their much awaited on-court crossover, Kyrgios revealed his honest thoughts on teaming up with Djoker.
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“Of course he is, yeah. I mean, everyone thinks it’s a pleasure playing with him it’s actually a pleasure playing with me let’s be real,” he commented while sharing his and the Serb’s excitement publicly. Talking about how this collaboration came to fruition, he revealed,
“He kept, like, messaging me over and over again. I was just like, I’ll give him a little handout and give him the pleasure of playing doubles with me (smiling). But no, it’s going to be a lot of fun. Look, kid from Canberra gets to play with the greatest of all time in his hometown in front of the fans is pretty special.”
Adding on to his own hype for the partnership, he said, “It’s something that I’m able to tell people when it’s all said and done that I played doubles with him. It’s pretty special.” But this isn’t the first time he’s expressed his zeal to team up with Novak Djokovic.
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On a previous occasion, he echoed a similar sentiment saying, “I think we wanted to play one time at least before either his career ends or mine finishes as well so, to finally do it on my home soil where, you know, I think for the fans whenever you get a team-up like this, it’s important that the fans get that because that’s what tennis is about. Having two great personalities and trying to have some fun out there.”
It will be intriguing to see how their first doubles match turns out when the two step on the court on Monday. Do you think the duo will begin their campaign in Brisbane on a winning note? Let us know in the comments below.