Former British No 1 tears into Nick Kyrgios, saying ‘I don’t really respect him as a human being’

Tennis News
An unimpressed Nick Kyrgios

Former British No 1 Annabel Croft has lashed out at Nick Kyrgios for being “unbelievably rude and vicious” to some of his fellow tennis players, saying “he does things that create an enormous amount of attention”.

Kyrgios has been one of the most vocal tennis players on social media during and after the controversial Adria Tour.

The exhibition tournament was the brainchild of world No 1 Novak Djokovic with the aim to raise funds for humanitarian projects in the Balkan region.

Several players, including Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov and Borna Coric, tested positive for the coronavirus midway through the tournament and the event was cancelled.

Nick Kyrgios and Borna Coric trade barbs on social media as Adria Tour spat continues

Kyrgios was involved in several social media spats with his colleagues, former players and fans, claiming that they should have known and done better during the pandemic.

On Sunday the Australian pulled out of the US Open due to Covid-19 and again criticised Djokovic and others involved in the Adria Tour.

‘It hurts me at my core,’ says Nick Kyrgios as he pulls out of US Open over coronavirus concerns

Croft admits she is not a fan of the world No 40.

“He is taking this position of the moral high ground and he has been incredible vocal, I’d go as far as saying he’s been unbelievably rude and vicious to quite a lot of his fellow tennis players in some Tweets quite recently,” she told talkSPORT’s White and Sawyer show.

“He’s been attacking Djokovic and Dominic Thiem and the other day I saw him calling Borna Coric a peanut brain, and the most boring player to watch.

“He’s very outspoken and he does things that create an enormous amount of attention. He’s sort of turned himself into this bad guy, a pantomime villain, but now he’s taking this moral high ground…

“I have to say, after some of the behaviour that I’ve seen from Nick Kyrgios I’m not one that’s inclined to really respect a lot of what he does.

“I don’t know where he’s made that statement from, wherever he is in Australia, but I can understand if he’s over there and it is very bad right now, they’re on lockdown, there’s an 8pm curfew, and so perhaps from his standpoint and for the Australian public he wants to do that [pull out of the US Open].

“But I don’t really respect him as a human being with the way he goes about his business on the court, so it’s hard for me to listen to him making that statement to be honest.”

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Annabel Croft Nick Kyrgios

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