Nick Kyrgios has cheekily taken aim at Cruz Hewitt after the son of Lleyton Hewitt posted a photo with Jannik Sinner after training with the World No. 1 in ahead of the Australian Open.
Sinner has touched down in Melbourne and is looking to defend his title after he had a dominant season in 2024, winning the Australian Open, US Open, ATP Finals and the Davis Cup with Italy.
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But tensions are simmering in the tennis world after Kyrgios led backlash against short-term bans handed down in recent cases — headlined by the scandals surrounding Sinner and former women’s World No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
Australian doubles champion Max Purcell is also serving a voluntary provisional ban over the use of an IV drip.
Sinner twice tested positive for the banned steroid clostebol in March. However, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted his argument that the steroid entered his system due to contamination from his physiotherapist and opted not to suspend him.
Sinner has consistently denied knowingly doping. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) subsequently appealed the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with a verdict pending.
Swiatek served a one-month ban at the end of last year after testing positive to banned substance trimetazidine.
“Two world No.1s both getting done for doping is disgusting for our sport – it’s a horrible look,” Kyrgios said in Brisbane last week.
So Kyrgios was not happy when he saw Cruz Hewitt having a practice hit with Sinner at Melbourne Park.
The 16-year-old was watched on by his father Lleyton and coach Peter Luczak as he traded forehands with Sinner.
But Kyrgios wasn’t impressed, writing a slew of negative comments on a photo uploaded by Cruz to his Instagram account, smiling next to Sinner.
The Australian Open account shared a clip of the training session, saying: “Welcome back @janniksinner and @cruzhewitt.”
Kyrgios commented on Cruz’s post: “Love ya Cruz but this is wild”, adding “Cooked post” with a needle emoji.
He also wrote: “Thought we were boys” with several broken heart emojis.
Sinner shared Cruz’s post and said: “Thanks for joining, good hit!”
Kyrgios was swiftly criticised for the comments, with tennis fans saying they went too far.
Tennis reporter Bastien Fachan posted on X: “16-year-old Cruz Hewitt posts picture of him training with Jannik Sinner on Rod Laver Arena …
“29-year-old Nick Kyrgios immediately spams it with disparaging comments and needle emojis. This is way over the line, and it’s time the tennis world calls out his harassment campaign.”
In response to Kyrgios’ comments, leading tennis commentator Jose Morgado posted: “Jesus Christ.”
Kyrgios appeared to explain the comments as humour after one fan wrote: “A 30 yo harassing a 16 yo on social media, really? Embarrassing”.
The Australian replied: “It’s a joke mateeeee hahaha.”
Tennis Australia CEO and Australian Open boss Craig Tiley said he had confidence in the sport’s drug testing systems.
“One thing that we need to remember – the fact that we’re having these reports, and they’re public, is that we have a very strong testing team, an international agency, and that’s the right thing to be doing,” Tiley said.
“As far as the specific cases, I won’t comment on those because there is a lot of stuff I don’t know about, but both of the No.1 players have been cleared.
“All I will say is that the regime, the testing regime, is rigorous and, and my experience around those players and all the other players is that they’re doing the right thing.”
Cruz has been given a wildcard to Australian Open qualifying where he will attempt to emulate the incredible rise of his famous dad, who went on an inspired run through qualifying as a 15-year-old wildcard in 1997 to reach the first of 20 consecutive main draw appearances at Melbourne Park.
Cruz is one of Australia’s most highly rated juniors and is expected to feature in the Australian Open junior tournament in 2025.
Ranked just outside the top 1000, Cruz was beaten 7-6 (11-9) 6-1 in the first round of qualifying by Brandon Holt, 26, at the Canberra International challenger event in late December.
Alex de Minaur will be the first Australian since Hewitt in 2005 to have a top eight seed at the Australian Open, giving the Aussie a golden opportunity to reach the quarterfinals.
Kyrgios hasn’t played Davis Cup under Lleyton Hewitt’s captaincy since 2019 and it’s hard to imagine the 29-year-old suiting up in the green and gold again.
Australia has fallen agonisingly short of Davis Cup glory in recent years, losing in the semi-finals to Italy last year, in the final to Italy in 2023 and to Canada in the 2022 final.
Kyrgios is making a comeback to professional tennis after a 18-month injury layoff in which he underwent wrist surgery.
He returned to the court this week at the Brisbane International, losing his first singles match-up in a clash with big serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard where all three sets went to tiebreaks.
The 29-year-old also teamed up with Novak Djokovic in the doubles, winning a match before losing to the top seeds.
Kyrgios will play doubles with Thanasi Kokkinakis at the Australian Open.
Kyrgios, who will enter the Australian Open main draw thanks to a protected ranking, has said he hopes to play Sinner at the year’s first grand slam and “just turn it into an absolute riot” having been outspoken about the Italian escaping major penalty for a positive drug test.
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