“I’ve never been defaulted,” Nick Kyrgios declines being the ‘John McEnroe’ of current lot despite the two players having similar personalities

Kyrgios is often compared to American legend John McEnroe for their equally radical nature.

“I’ve never been defaulted,” Nick Kyrgios declines being the ‘John McEnroe’ of current lot despite the two players having similar personalities

Nick Kyrgios (L), John McEnroe (R) (Sources: Imago)

Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios recently gave an explosive interview to Piers Morgan in which he talked about several controversial issues. The British journalist is pretty well known for his transparent and vexed interviews and this one was no different.

In one of the parts of the video ‘Piers Morgan vs Nick Kyrgios’, Morgan compared Nick Kyrgios to American legend John McEnroe, but the Australian rejected the comparison with a sharp rebuttal. 

Kyrgios is pretty infamous in the tennis circle for his attitude and aggression on the court, and so was John McEnroe back in his day. However, the Australian has rejected the comparisons between them, saying that 7-time Grand Slam winners often did certain things that he never did.

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Controversy was never away from McEnroe. Kyrgios reminded of the time when McEnroe defaulted in his match against Mikael Pernfors in the 1990 Australian Open and was ejected from the tournament for swearing at the umpire, supervisor, and referee. 

I don’t think I’ve ever been defaulted from a match. 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. 

For these exact similarities between the two players, McEnroe has always appreciated Nick Kyrgios. The American considered Nick to be a great player and said that his aggression is important in modern-day tennis. The two even had dinner together.

The Australian has paid a total of £450,000 in penalty fees in fines to the ATP throughout his career, which is the highest in the history of the sport. This shows why he is regarded as the ‘bad boy’ of tennis. 

Nick Kyrgios reveals John McEnroe doesn’t give him advice after having dinner together 

During the aforementioned interview, Kyrgios mentioned he met McEnroe for the first time back in 2017 ahead of the debut season of the Laver Cup. McEnroe was the captain of Team World, while Kyrgios was the camaraderie captain. Ahead of the tournament, the two had dinner together and the American allegedly did not give Nick any advice after that meal. 

John McEnroe and Nick Kyrgios
John McEnroe and Nick Kyrgios (Source: ABC)
We didn’t know how it would be, but we sat down and had dinner together and realized 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. 

The Australian agreed in the interview that sometimes he probably does cross the line, but trash-talk, according to him, is an important aspect of any game. He said just because tennis is a much more traditional game; he is put under scrutiny every single time. But being a basketball fan, it comes naturally to him. 

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