Andy Roddick Calls Out Nick Kyrgios amid Jannik Sinner Feud: ‘He Lives for Likes’
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Former tennis star Andy Roddick called out Nick Kyrgios amid tension between him and Jannik Sinner.
On his podcast, Served with Andy Roddick, Roddick accused Kyrgios of “hypocrisy” and called him a “tennis influencer who “lives for the likes.”
Kyrgios has been outspoken against Sinner after the star avoided a band for failing to doping tests last year. The ITIA chose not to ban Sinner after he tested positive for “less than a billionth of a gram” of the substance Clostebol, which was found in massage cream.
It was Kyrgios’ criticism of Sinner that led to Roddick speaking out against him.
“I chose to understand the context (of the Sinner case) and explain it in a way that wasn’t just, ‘You’re doping, kick you out forever’, but that maybe there was some nuance and maybe our doping protocols were a little overzealous,” he said (h/t Tennis365’s Ewan West).
In August, after the ITIA chose not to ban Sinner, Kyrgios made a post on social media disagreeing with the decision.
“Ridiculous – whether it was accidental or planned,” he wrote. “You get tested twice with a banned (steroid) substance… you should be gone for 2 years. Your performance was enhanced. Massage cream…. Yeah nice.”
Nicholas Kyrgios @NickKyrgios
Ridiculous – whether it was accidental or planned. You get tested twice with a banned (steroid) substance… you should be gone for 2 years. Your performance was enhanced. Massage cream…. Yeah nice 🙄 https://t.co/13qR0F9nH2
In the months since, Kyrgios has maintained his disagreement with the ITIA’s decision and has been especially vocal on social media, which ultimately led to Roddick encouraging him to stop trying to be a “tennis influencer.”