Kyrgios to return but keeps focus on Sinner and Swiatek

Nick Kyrgios just wants to speak his truth, man. He does, after all, have his own podcast to go along with his blue tick on X/Twitter, where he is not afraid to add a hot take or two to the big topics. It's hardly a new development.

- JAMIE BRAIDWOOD

Among his fellow professionals on the tour, the divisive and disruptive Australian has always possessed one of the louder voices in the room.

Kyrgios may have been sidelined by injury for the past 18 months, but his opinions, including his forthright view that the Pyramids were not built by humans, have not diminished, nor has his capacity to spout them. Instead, he has been magnified, holding a megaphone towards his newfound calling of righteousness. The self-proclaimed “troublemaker” of tennis has rebranded as its moral protector.

Or, rather, Kyrgios has found a target, and there is no bigger target than those at the top. In a year where both the men’s and women’s world No 1s, Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, tested positive for banned substances but were found to bear no significant fault, Kyrgios has been unrelenting in his criticism. Plenty of current and former players have been critical of the process that allowed both Sinner and Swiatek’s cases to be kept confidential until the outcomes were determined and have questioned a supposed “two-tier” approach to doping violations. Yet no player has been as committed to that criticism than Kyrgios.