Tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios has revealed fellow former rebel John McEnroe doesn’t try to give him advice anymore after the pair found common ground at dinner. The polarising figures of tennis’ past and present sat down for a meal ahead of the Laver Cup, which debuted in 2017 with McEnroe as the Team World’s captain and Kyrgios as one of his players.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been defaulted from a match,” Kyrgios told “Piers Morgan Uncensored”. “He broke all his rackets and had no rackets to play with (during a match) and had to get defaulted. So I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I’ve walked off the court.
“When me and Jonny Mac first met at Laver Cup, he was Team World captain and I was like Team World’s camaraderie captain in that sense. We didn’t know how it would be, but we sat down and had dinner together and realised we are pretty similar. We are just trying to be ourselves.
“We are just trying to be original and authentic. He was surprised that I was intellectually switched on, so he doesn’t try to give me advice. He knows I am pretty switched on.”
Kyrgios is the most-fined player in the history of the ATP Tour. The Aussie, 29, has been fined a total of £450,000. Kyrgios says he loves being the villain. “You feel like the bad guy in a movie, you feel like the main villain and I love it,” said Kyrgios.
“When I go out to stadiums around the world now, it’s like people are cheering, people are going crazy, people wanting to see the Kyrgios show. But back in the day, when I used to show up to places, people just used to hate seeing my presence around the courts. They would boo my practices. It was just a riot and something just drove me to, it was just addictive.
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“So it was a good feeling, but I think being appreciated and being supported, it’s definitely, I think healthier, but the villain was good for a little bit. I’m not going to say I don’t have some regrets about my actions on court. When I look back on some of the replays, they don’t look good.
“Sometimes I do cross the line, but you look at other sports, trash talking is normal. These behaviors are quite as repulsive. Because it is tennis, it’s all very traditional. You are talking to someone who loves the NBA (US basketball) and loves the culture and the trash talk, but I’ve realised as I get older that millions of kids are watching me and I have to set an example.”
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