Former tennis world number 1 Andy Roddick has criticized Nick Kyrgios for his behavior towards Jannik Sinner and Lleyton Hewitt’s son Cruz, in a stunning episode in which he brought up the Australian’s guilty plea to assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
Kyrgios, 29, has spoken out about doping this year, particularly lashing out at Jannik Sinner, who failed two tests for the steroid clostebol in March.
Sinner avoided a ban as the International Tennis Integrity Agency determined he was not responsible for the violation.
That hasn’t stopped Kyrgios from going after Sinner on social media at every opportunity, labeling the doping scandal as ‘disgusting’.
Last week, Kyrgios took aim at Cruz Hewitt when the 16-year-old posted a photo of himself training with Sinner, with the comments “I love ya Cruz but this is wild,” “thought we were boys” and “cooked post” with a needle emoji.
The 29-year-old later hit back at the criticism over his response, claiming it had been misinterpreted and that only an ‘idiot’ wouldn’t realize he and Hewitt are friends and that it was just ‘a joke’.
Former tennis world number 1 Andy Roddick (pictured) has branded Nick Kyrgios a hypocrite and a bully over his treatment of Jannik Sinner and Lleyton Hewitt’s son Cruz
Kyrgios has repeatedly hit out at tennis bosses for failing to ban Jannik Sinner after he returned two positive doping test results
Roddick, who has had a rocky relationship with Kyrgios over the years, has had enough of the tennis bad boy and has slammed his ‘ridiculous’ behaviour.
“Right now he’s a tennis influencer. He lives for likes, he lives in the comments section,” Roddick said on his Served podcast on Wednesdays.
“What I have a problem with is the hypocrisy with which he judges others, while also wanting you to realize the context of his comments – most recently to Cruz Hewitt, who practiced with Jannik Sinner.
‘Kyrgios was Jannik Sinner’s most outspoken critic after his failed doping test. So Cruz Hewitt is 16 years old, son of Lleyton and the toughest competitor I have ever played against in my life, will face a man who is number one in the world at the Australian Open. That’s a big problem.
‘Imagine that, as an almost thirty-year-old man, you respond to the comments of a sixteen-year-old who is the best player in the world. If you think he is guilty or not guilty, it is still a time when you can do that.
“That’s a big moment to just post a picture and then have this guy go into the comments and make it all about himself. “I thought we were brothers.”
“The defense was all about it being a joke. The lack of awareness you have when you bring trolls and all the worst tennis fandom into a 16 year old’s comments is ridiculous. It’s ridiculous.’
Roddick then brought up the fact that Kyrgios pleaded guilty to assaulting his ex-girlfriend Chiara Passari in 2021.
Sinner’s team successfully argued that the banned substance was transferred in small doses during a massage and was not deliberately ingested
Nick Kyrgios is pictured with his ex-girlfriend Chiara Passari. He pleaded guilty to pushing her to the ground when he appeared in court on assault charges in 2023.
Kyrgios said he was “not in a good place” at the time and that he “reacted to a difficult situation in a way that I deeply regret” as the magistrate dismissed the assault charge and did not hand down a conviction.
“When you have moments in your life that aren’t the best,” Roddick said.
“If you’ve pleaded guilty to physically assaulting your girlfriend, but you want people to understand the context…
“You wanted people to understand your moment in time and life, which didn’t make this acceptable, but maybe at least say, ‘This isn’t who I am, this isn’t what I do — I’m not an abuser, even though I plead guilty to abuse.”
Roddick went on to say that Kyrgios has complained about mental health issues and online bullying that he has suffered, but does not realize that he is engaging in similar behavior with his online behavior.
‘It’s just hypocritical. It is purely hypocritical,” he said.
Roddick has a very different view of the transgressions of Sinner and former women’s world number 1 Iga Swiatek, stating that it is “not even about doping, but about contaminated substances and testing on billionths of a gram.”
“Some players [are] chirping about these champions who will be Hall of Famers when they’ve never had two good days together at the same time in their lives.”