Nick Kyrgios claimed he would rather punch Rafael Nadal for £50million than win a Grand Slam title. The Australian made the remark while answering a question from a fan on social media.
Kyrgios and Nadal met nine times on the court before the latter retired last year, with the Spaniard winning six of those encounters. They were famously due to meet in the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2022, but Nadal was forced to pull out ahead of the clash as he was struggling with an abdominal injury. Kyrgios was therefore able to progress to the final, with the Australian suffering a defeat at the hands of Novak Djokovic in the showpiece match.
Kyrgios took to Instagram to give his followers an opportunity to ask him questions, with the 30-year-old stating he would only answer the “cheeky” ones.
And when the talented ace was asked whether he would prefer to “punch Nadal for 50 million or win a Grand Slam”, he simply replied: “50 milly”.
Kyrgios and Nadal were involved in a war of words following their second-round encounter at Wimbledon in 2019 after the Aussie admitted he had tried to hit his opponent with a shot after the Spaniard had approached the net.
After being asked if he should have apologised, Kyrgios said: “Why would I apologise? I won the point. The dude has got how many Slams, how much money in the bank account? I think he can take a ball to the chest.” He then admitted: “I was going for him. I wanted to hit him square in the chest.”
And Kyrgios also slammed the umpire as he exclaimed: “The umpire today was horrendous. I mean, he was terrible.
“The rule is like play to the speed of the server. Why do I have to wait for Rafa to get into his rhythm every time? I thought the way he handled the match was just bad.”
Nadal then discussed the incident as he said: “It is not dangerous for me, it is dangerous for a line referee, dangerous for a crowd. When you hit the ball like this, you don’t know where the ball goes.”
Kyrgios has had a limited schedule on the tennis court over the last three years due to a succession of injury issues and didn’t play any Grand Slams in 2023 and 2024.
He returned to action at the Australian Open in January but was comprehensively dispatched by British star Jacob Fearnley in the first round. And he didn’t feature at the French Open, Wimbledon or the US Open in the following months.