“It was a complete accident and was frustrated at the end of the match. My racquet took a crazy bounce and was never my intention,” said a disappointed Nick Kyrgios, back in 2022. After losing to Rafael Nadal in the QF round of ATP 1000 BNP Paribas Open, he went on to smash his racquet so hard, it nearly hit a ball kid. But hey, that’s Nick for you. The former World No.13 and 2022 Wimbledon finalist has earned a “Badboy” reputation across various ATP tours in the last decade. But somehow, he believes it’s good for the sport. But how?

During an episode of the Nothing Major podcast, the Aussie was asked some intriguing questions over his on-court behavior. To mention a few of his instances, there’s one from almost a decade ago.

In 2015, during a third round Wimbledon match, he smashed his racket in a way that it flew straight into the stands. In the same event, during the fourth-round battle against Richard Gasquet, Nick was seen deliberately missing out on returning some of his opponent’s serves. Considering such moments, the hosts asked him whether his controversial ‘badboy’ image on the court was natural.

In his response, Nick said, “People that know and knew how I grew up and how I was as a kid, I haven’t changed at all. I’ve always been a kind of, I guess, on the naughty side of things.”

Interestingly, he then went on to defend his antics. He tried to explain how his personality brings a spark in tennis as a sport. Especially against opponents who are completely opposite to him in terms of behavior and overall temperament. According to him, this contrast leads to excitement among fans in the stands. “I don’t do things to the book like smash a bunch of rackets, do this, do that. But I feel like in sport, why we love sport is you have to have contrast and personality. If I draw Sinner at Oz Open third round, the reason why everyone will watch that, because it’s contrasting in personalities, we don’t like each other,” he explained.

“I think it’s actually healthy in sport, but I don’t consciously go out there and think like, oh, obviously for my good trouble, my podcast and all this other stuff, I understand that the brand kind of that had been created over the last 12 years of my career, it’s almost benefited me to be, I guess, this controversial person,” added Nick.

Notably, he also mentioned that his on-court behavior is not always intentional. It just happens to be, depending on the circumstances and his own mood. “When I’m on court, I think, depending on how I feel, which is for me, it’s a coin flip. I don’t know how I’m gonna wake up and how I’m gonna act on court. But when I’m in that mood, hell yeah, I’ll stir up the crowd for sure and I’ll do anything,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Nick also talked about how he’s going to make a solid comeback at the Australian Open. Personally, he’s looking forward to facing World No.1 Jannik Sinner and eventually beat him too!

Nick Kyrgios reveals his master plan to beat Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open

In the same podcast, Nick expressed his sheer excitement about stepping on the court. After almost two years, due to his knee and wrist injuries, he will be seen back in action. While he’s aiming to make it big at the Australian Open, he really wants to have a face-off against Jannik Sinner. “I feel like I’ve got a lot more, I’ve got something, you know, let’s be honest. I just want to go out there and I really want to play Sinner. Like I’m waiting for it, man,” he said.

Moreover, he also explained the plan to defeat the two-time Grand Slam champion in case they play each other. “Well, I thought about this and I’ve been thinking, I’ve been talking about it a little bit, like if I played him in Australian Open, like I would get every single person in the crowd to just like get on him,” he said. “I would just turn into an absolute riot. Like I would lose all respect, would go out the window and would just do anything to win,” added Nick Kyrgios.

It will be interesting to see whether this strategy will prove effective against the Fox. And that’s only going to happen if they actually meet in next month’s first Major of 2025. But Nick will also try to better his performance at the Australian Open in general. His last appearance in the event, back in 2022, didn’t bring promising results. He was eliminated in the second round after losing to Daniil Medvedev. Will he make an impact this time? Only time will tell the answer.