Nick Kyrgios says tennis needs different personalities to engage fans

Tennis fans are counting down the days until the sport returns Down Under at the 2025 United Cup in Perth. It gets noisy on the socials before a ball has been hit. The traditional British pantomime season means that for every good guy there's a bad Santa waiting to shake up the Christmas decorations. That man is that Nick Kyrgios who wasted no time in targeting the previously unquestionable Jannik Sinner. It will be interesting when the two meet at Rod Laver Arena next month.

On the Nothing Major Podcast, Kyrgios discussed his impending return to competition at the Brisbane International after two years out of action due to a number of recurring injuries. Let's be honest, I just want to go out and play him (Sinner). I thought about this. If I played him at the Australian Open, I would get everyone in the crowd to root for him. I would just make an absolute riot, said the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up.

This was brash Kyrgios (is there another version?) speaking, a fast and loose, undiluted delivery of his thoughts on a podcast that served as the spoken word version of his social media accounts. The goal of Kyrgios, who is increasingly coming into play, was to reveal his life story through content platforms such as OnlyFans. In the absence of matches, the 29-year-old uses his own advice to win or lose hearts and minds off and on the pitch.

The 2022 Australian Open doubles champion has been one of the most vocal critics of Sinner's handling of two positive drug tests earlier this year. The Italian escaped a ban after successfully arguing that the banned substance clostebol entered his system through contamination. WADA is currently calling for a sanction of up to two years, despite the independent tribunal's findings.

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If I draw Sinner in the third round of the Australian Open, everyone will be watching because of the contrasting personalities. We don't like each other, and I think it's healthy in sports, Kyrgios noted.

Kyrgios has touched on something here in his own inimitable style. The rivalry in sports must have an edge to engage the audience. The level of respect between players is one thing, but there has to be something else to fan the flame. The team of Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner flying together to the Shanghai Masters raised a few eyebrows.

The current Wimbledon men's singles champion argued that tennis relationships off the court are very good and that this makes the sport unique. Because we fight against each other, a three-hour match, very close, he was able to win. In the end I won and two hours later we are on the same plane and we are laughing, joking, talking about life and pretending that nothing happened,” Alcaraz explains.

Others would argue that sparks should fly instead of players. Jimmy Connors turned it into a war. His epic matches with John McEnroe were fueled by disgust. Pat Cash and Ivan Lendl never saw eye to eye. Even Djokovic's entourage got under the skin of the cool and calm Roger Federer. Kyrgios and Rafa Nadal was a riveting watch in SW19 because of their different views on life.

There was a significant drop in viewing figures for the men's singles at the final major of the season at Flushing Meadows. Sinners' rather routine victory against Taylor Fritz in the men's final of the US Open averaged 1.8 million viewers on ABC and ESPN+, which was more than 3o percent fewer than the 2023 final between Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. Even Alcaraz's Wimbledon victory over the Serbian was almost the same percentage as their epic 2023 encounter.

Sinner and Alcaraz have had some fantastic matches. The China Open was one of the finals of the ATP tour for the ages, but there is an uncomfortable gap between the end of the Big Four era and the wave of Next Gen talent. Djokovic returns for a shot at an eleventh title in Melbourne with Andy Murray as coach. That's old news, repackaged in a new life for both men and increases interest in the tournament.

These are challenges that will only increase in 2025. Adaptations, rule changes and rewiring of the approach to the game via the Ultimate Tennis Showdown are all big indications that modern life requires a different approach. Arousing player interest through the Netflix series Break Point was also not exactly a hit, as Drive to Survive did for Formula 1. The series was axed in March, with the Times of London citing poor ratings and a lack of access to key figures in the sport as reasons.

Tennis 2025 sounds futuristic. That's where the game needs to go to try and weave a mix of tradition and 21st century adaptations. Kyrgios says Alcaraz and Sinner don't have the charisma of Federer and Djokovic. That's understandable. What they need is to leave the crowd – at home and in the stadium – wanting more. In a tennis schedule that demands more from the players, it will be difficult.