Former top ten player takes a shot at Nick Kyrgios over schedule comments

Jimmy Arias, a former American tennis player and world No 5, has rubbished Nick Kyrgios’ comments about the demanding schedule of the sport.

Arias feels that Kyrgios has never committed to the full schedule and isn’t well-placed to comment on it.

Kyrgios made the comments while acting as a ‘coach’ at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown exhibition event.

The Australian is currently away from the tour recovering from surgery but warned fans not to expect too much more tennis from him.

“The sport’s crazy,” said Kyrgios.

“The schedule is out of control. No f**king change [I play till I am 33], there’s no way. There’s no chance. I’m playing till 33? Insane! I’m not playing till 33. I promise you when I’m gone, you’ll never see me again.

Arias believes that little stock should be put in what Kyrgios says he will do and claims that it is likely that we could still see Kyrgios playing towards the end of the current decade.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about when he says this schedule is out of control. He’s played one match this year. He seems to take every other year off, so he should be able to play for another 25 years,” Arias told the Tennis Channel.

“It’s just interesting to listen to him talk; let’s see what happens when he’s 33. But as we’re talking right now, I don’t know [if] he’s gonna play five more matches [this year]. He’s played once so far this year. I’m not sure [his] wrist, knee [or] his tattoo is hurting him too much [from playing] Pokemon maybe. I don’t know,” Arias continued.

Despite the mocking tone of his dismissal of Kyrgios’ scheduling complaints and injury worries, Arias insists that the controversial Australian is good for the sport.

“The guy is so talented, he doesn’t really train, he doesn’t do all the things that are actually difficult and make it hard. And he doesn’t seem to care, although obviously he does. He’s great for the game to have him play, but he’s got to play sometimes,” Arias added.

“Something’s going on but let’s hopefully see him again. He was great last year. [For] whatever reason, last year he was great,” he added.

Kyrgios has not set any sort of timeline to return the sport and has even hinted that he might just quit the sport outright rather than return to the ATP Tour with any great intensity.

READ MORE: Nick Kyrgios set for slide down ATP Rankings as injury woes continue