Nick Kyrgios reignites feud with BBC colleague over ‘disrespectful’ comment during Zverev-Fritz match

Just a couple of weeks after BBC commentator Andrew Castle described him as the “real golden boy” of clickbait, Nick Kyrgios has taken another swipe at his colleague.

Kyrgios first had a run-in with Castle during last year’s Wimbledon final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic as the Australian described the commentator as a “clown” on social media.

But they appeared to have moved past that comment at the start of this year’s grass-court Grand Slam as Castle paid Kyrgios a glowing tribute after the former world No 13 joined the BBC’s commentary team, describing him as “articulate, intelligent and sharp-witted”.

He also insisted there were no hard feelings about the “clown” remark, saying: “The point of social media is that everyone has a say, including Nick. Hey, I’m not surprised it got picked up on. Everything Nick says gets picked up. In this world of clickbait-driven stuff, he’s a real golden boy. I look forward to seeing him and working with him.'”

The pair shared the booth for several matches earlier in the tournament, but Kyrgios – who missed this year’s event due to injury – was back to his old ways on day eight of Wimbledon 2024 as he hit out at Castle for being “disrespectful” about the Alexander Zverev-Taylor Fritz fourth-round match.

Zverev and Fritz battled it out for more than three hours and 30 minutes as they played five-setters with the match dominated by their big serves, leading Castle to remark “You can’t say it’s been the most captivating tennis, to be frank”.

It did not go down well with Kyrgios.

“‘Not captivating’ – was a comment from a commentator who is doing the Zverev & Fritz match. This alone tells me that they have probably never played tennis at a high level. 2 of the most elite servers we have. Quite disrespectful. Cmon be better,” he wrote on X.

Castle, of course, reached a career-high of No 80 in the singles with his best Grand Slam performance a run to the third round of the US Open while he reached the second round at Wimbledon.

He followed it up by highlighting just how good Zverev and Fritz’s serves were, adding: “Context. Tour serve quality 7.8 Zverev & Fritz both above 9. lol.”

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Reactions to Kyrgios’ post were pretty mixed with some agreeing with Castle and others backing the Australian.

“Sorry but it’s boring to see points won with one or two strikes of the ball. When the game was created, serving was designed to get the ball in play, not win the point. This is not entertaining. Men’s tennis should go to one serve. Then we’d see rallies, like we do on clay,” one user wrote.

Another said: “Serve bombing has never been captivating and never will be, just because you’ve a big serve doesn’t mean it is ♂️”

There was also support for Kyrgios: “Spot on. It was a fantastic game of tennis. The level of concentration and physicality that was required of both the players for 5 sets- incredible! ”

And criticism of Castle: “The usual level of drivel from Andrew Castle who should have been put out to pasture years ago. Spends more time commenting on Zverev’s gold than anything to do with the tennis on-court “