Nick Kyrgios moves to clarify Australian Open stance after wild claim

Nick Kyrgios made an extreme claim about the Australian Open earlier on Tuesday, and the star has moved quickly to clarify his comments.

Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has seemingly walked back on his claim that the Australian Open should be scrapped in 2022, believing it’s not “morally right” to accept unvaccinated overseas players.

Earlier on Tuesday, comments from Kyrgios on his No Boundaries podcast emerged, where the 26-year-old stated next year’s edition of the opening grand slam shouldn’t go ahead.

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“I don’t think the Aus Open should go ahead, just for the people in Melbourne – you’ve got to send a message,” Kyrgios said.

“How long did (Melbourne) do in lockdown? 275 days or something?”

But after creating a huge storm with his sweeping statement, the Canberra native posted a series of Instagram stories to clarify his position.

“Hey guys, it’s Nick Kyrgios here,” he said. “First of all, I just want to clear up a couple of things.

“As you know, I’ve started a new podcast with two of my childhood friends.

“Some things have been taken out of context regarding the Australian Open.

“I just want to send this video just to clear it up and have a bit of clarity.

“Tennis has been such a big part of my life for 15 years-plus, and I’ve given myself a lot of sacrifice every single day to this sport. I love it.

“To say that I want the Australian Open to be cancelled, I think that was the sentence that got taken out of context.

Nick Kyrgios took to his Instagram stories to clarify his earlier comments surrounding the Australian Open. Picture: Daniel Pockett / Getty Images

“It’s more so for the people of Melbourne who have gone through hell and back.

“I think it’s been 275 days, nearly 300 days of lockdown, and your freedom has been taken away from you.

“I don’t think it’s morally right to accept players from overseas who aren’t vaccinated to come into our country.”

Kyrgios has consistently aired his support for tennis players getting vaccinated, but appeared to back down from his stance in his podcast and believed rapid Covid-19 testing was the perfect solution to get around unvaccinated sport stars.

Referencing the fortunes of Novak Djokovic and Kyrie Irving, two sport stars who are notorious for their hesitant stance on vaccinations, Kyrgios believed it was “morally wrong” to enforce vaccinations.

“Kyrie, Novak … these guys have given so much, sacrificed so much,” Kyrgios said. “They are global athletes who millions of people look up to.

“I just think it is so morally wrong to force someone to be vaccinated.

“I’m double vaccinated, but I just don’t think it’s right to force anyone (to be vaccinated) and say ‘you can’t come and play here because you’re not vaccinated’.

“There are other solutions around it, (such as) to get tested every day.

“In the States I know they’ve got rapid tests, and it’s coming to Australia.

“It’s 85 per cent success rate, you wait 15 minutes and then you’re allowed to play.”