Nick Kyrgios is no stranger to controversy and the Australian has done it again. The ‘bad boy of tennis’ wants to avoid retiring like Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, stating he doesn’t want to be “crawling to the finish line.” It’s no surprise that his opinion sparked widespread outrage on social media.
Kyrgios, appearing on The Louis Theroux Podcast, said that injuries suffered at the end of their careers prevented Nadal and Murray from leaving the sport in the best possible manner. Starting with the former Brit No.1, Kyrgios was quoted as saying:
“What Andy Murray’s achieved in this sport is second to basically no-one… unless you are Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, or Nadal, like, the next person is Andy Murray.
“It’s like you’ve achieved everything. You deserve to go out, I think, a little bit more gracefully than he’s done. I think that the surgeries, the pain, it’s just not worth it, in my opinion.”
Murray came close to quitting the sport in 2019. Still, he decided to keep going until the end of the Paris Olympics this year, albeit without much success after his hip surgery.
At several phases of his career, Nadal also battled injuries. Former coach and uncle Toni Nadal acknowledged that the Spaniard needed painkillers to play Grand Slam matches and sometimes to even complete training sessions.
To be fair, Nadal still continued to play at the top of his game for several years. But the Spaniard finally decided to hang up his boots after next month’s Davis Cup, not being able to make a comeback to his previous levels in the 2024 season.
Although Kyrgios has not played competitive tennis since August of last year, the Australian insists he has no intention of leaving the sport like those two.
“I look at how Andy Murray’s doing it now, and how Rafa Nadal is going out, I don’t want to be like that either. I don’t want to be kind of crawling to the finish line in a sense,” Kyrgios added.
Understandably, these comments did not sit well with tennis enthusiasts, who are yet to fully recover from Nadal’s retirement announcement.
Fans slam Kyrgios for his retirement comments about Nadal and Murray
Some supporters felt Kyrgios should talk about them only after winning a Grand Slam. Others thought he would not retire like them since he had not achieved anything close to their degree of success.
lmao kyrgios has to win a slam in singles first before he starts talking about Nadal/Murray.
Kyrgios biggest claim is that he beat these players during the EARLY rounds of a tournament, not in the finals.
There are others who’ve beaten these top players. It happens in tennis.— LAFan (@kcusc) October 29, 2024
Imagine comparing yourself to Andy and Rafa
— LDB (@therealalanv1) October 29, 2024
He’s not going to retire like Rafa or Andy cause he hasn’t achieved half the things Andy achied, let alone a quarter of what Rafa achied.
— ▕⃝⃤ Gia (@Giacn11) October 29, 2024
Nick shouldn’t worry because there’s no way he’ll have even the slightest bit of career as Andy.
— Ilaria Chiarabini (@IBChiarabini) October 29, 2024
The 2022 Wimbledon finalist has a long history of controversies. From smashing his rackets to yelling at umpires and arguing with opponents and supporters, the list goes on. However, fans have not gotten used to it.
According to Kyrgios, he is set to return at the Australian Open 2025 in front of his home fans in Melbourne. One thing is clear though, he is not leaving the tennis scene anytime soon. If not as a player, Kyrgios will remain in the public eye as a pundit for years to come.
