‘Can you apologise to Rafael Nadal too?’: Nick Kyrgios gives brutal response to fan’s Wimbledon question

Wimbledon 2023 finally began on Monday (July 26), with the qualifiers taking place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Grand Slam event will also see Novak Djokovic try to match Roger Federer’s tally of record eight Wimbledon titles. Ahead of the tournament, the Serbian ace lost the World No. 1 spot to Carlos Alcaraz, who won the Queen’s final.

Djokovic had toppled Alcaraz from pole position in the ATP rankings after winning the French Open. In Roland Garros, Alcaraz also lost to Djokovic in the semi-finals. This year, Wimbledon will be without Rafael Nadal, who will return to competitive tennis next year. Meanwhile, Nick Kyrgios could als miss out on the Grand Slam event, as last year’s Wimbledon finalist had to pull out from another lead-in tournament.

Kyrgios officially pulled out of this week’s Mallorca Open due to a knee problem that also forced him to withdraw from last week’s Halle Open. He has been struggling to return from a meniscus tear which required surgery in January and forced him to miss the Australian Open and French Open. He returned to play at the Stuttgart Open in his first competitive singles match since October last year, but the match lasted only 68 minutes as he lost.

On Twitter, the Australian was asked if he regretted targeting to hit Nadal during their 2019 Wimbledon second round match. During the match, Kyrgios fired a shot into Nadal’s body in the third set, but the veteran was able to defend himself by putting the racket against the ball. Then, he gave Kyrgios a strong stare, and the crowd were also stunned. After the match, Kyrgios revealed that he wanted to hit Nadal in the chest. The fan asked, “Can you apologise to Nadal too?”

Responding to the question, Kyrgios stated, “No. I meant that.”

The Aussie’s reply shocked fans on the social media platform. In that match, Nadal ended up winning 6-3 3-6 7-6 (5) 7-6 (3). Later, the duo were also set to face in Wimbledon’s semi-final, but Nadal had to pull out due to an injury. The pair did face each other last year at the Indian Wells Masters, where Nadal won in three sets.

Kyrgios hasn’t officially stated if he will miss Wimbledon or not. Last week after pulling out from the Halle Open, he said, “I’m still dealing with a couple things with my knee just trying to give myself the best opportunity to compete at Wimbledon. As you all know that tournament means a lot to me and I just want to do everything right by my body and I didn’t want to go out there and not give you the same performance I gave last year so hopefully I’ll be healthy enough to play, see you soon.”