>
Tennis legend Boris Becker slams Nick Kyrgios over the knee injury that ruined his Australian Open and appears to accuse the Aussie of not opening up to fans about what really happened
- Becker reacted after Kyrgios was forced to abandon his home Grand Slam on Monday.
- The great German questioned whether the Australian was telling the whole truth
- The pair feuded since 2020, with Kyrgios calling Becker a ‘donut’
Boris Becker has sensationally questioned whether Nick Kyrgios has told the truth about the knee injury that ruined his Australian Open campaign before it even started.
The Australian star announced he was withdrawing from his home Grand Slam on Monday, due to a torn meniscus in his knee and a cyst in the joint.
Kyrgios and his physiotherapist, Will Maher, said the injury first became a problem some two weeks earlier and used his charity match against Novak Djokovic on Friday night as a test of whether he could continue to play during the tournament.
A heartbroken Kyrgios shocked the tennis world when he announced he was withdrawing from the Open with a knee injury on Monday, just 24 hours before his first match was due to begin. He and his physio, Will Maher, said the joint had become a problem two weeks earlier.
Becker appeared to cast doubt on Kyrgios’ version of events, saying the star appeared uninjured when he played Novak Djokovic last Friday night.
The 27-year-old had a poor preparation for the Open as he was unable to participate in any previous tournament due to an ankle injury sustained while playing in Dubai.
However, Becker disputed that version of events.
“It didn’t look like that on Friday night when he played two sets against Djokovic,” he told Eurosport of Kyrgios’ injury battle.
Before he talked about injuries, but in the ankle and not in the knee.
“But what Nick Kyrgios says and what he does are often two different things.”
Kyrgios posted a grisly photo of what was drained from his injured knee with a syringe shortly after his Grand Slam retirement from home.
The pair have feuded in the past, with the Australian lashing out at the three-time Wimbledon champion in 2020.
Kyrgios made a social media post with a photo of himself playing for Team World at the Laver Cup, captioned “different race”, to which Becker commented: “In your dreams.”
The Canberran responded, writing: ‘Staying like a stink, maybe hoping to get more likes and followers. Unfortunately, you will never be that influential.
She then followed up on Twitter with, “He went from wanting to train me, obviously out of his desperate need for a paycheck, to hating my Instagram.” Strange world we live in.
They had an ongoing online feud in 2020, with Kyrgios making open comments about tennis stars and their behavior amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The German great (pictured with Martina Navratilova after winning the second of her three Wimbledon titles in 1986) has previously called Kyrgios a ‘rat’
He called rival player Alex Zverev “selfish” after footage surfaced of the world number seven breaking social distancing to go dancing at a club in Monte Carlo.
The incident led Becker to label Kyrgios a ‘rat’.
‘I do not like rats! Anyone who scolds a fellow athlete is not a friend of mine! Look in the mirror and think you’re better than us,” Becker tweeted.
“Boris Becker is a bigger donut than I thought,” Kyrgios replied. ‘He can hit a volley, although he’s obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed.’