Mic drop: Why we need Nick Kyrgios off our TV screens

Australians were treated this week to Hollywood Nick Kyrgios. Any follower of the US Open’s social media accounts would have been served up videos of Kyrgios having a hit and giggle with Matthew McConaughey at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Hollywood Kyrgios was charismatic. He congratulated McConaughey on his slice and his serve, as the Oscar-winning actor huffed and puffed up the other end of the Flushing Meadows centre court.

Last weekend, the Tennis Insider Club podcast reminded us of Sensitive Kyrgios, dropping a favourable interview during which the 29-year-old recounted his struggles with mental health and his fraught relationship with tennis. He came across as open and warm and, according to the hosts, “a great guy”.

It was the same weekend we also received a dose of Misogynistic Kyrgios. The Australian presented this version of himself – as he so often does – on X, via that well-publicised “second serve” post about Russian tennis player Anna Kalinskaya. If you require a refresher you will not find the post, because Kyrgios has since deleted it amid international condemnation. He did not delete it because he feels remorseful for publishing it in the first place, but presumably because, based on a subsequent post that remains live: “Don’t you think it’s hilarious how quickly people get triggered.”

Ironically, the drama made so many international headlines it drowned out those about the US Open women’s singles final being played that day, and prompted widespread calls for his commentary employer, ESPN, to relieve him of his duties. The broadcaster did not.

If anything, the events of the past week did perhaps help shed some light about why many tennis fans and observers find it so difficult to decide whether they like Kyrgios or they definitely do not. The cognitive confusion of trying to untangle numerous, conflicting personas within the one person can make it feel impossible to know where to land.

Some of the above traits are precisely the type Australians love in their sports stars. We can relate to the vulnerable side of Kyrgios, who has shared incredibly personal details about some of his lowest points and the help he needed to overcome them. It is a characteristic acknowledged and praised by Andre Agassi – himself no stranger to demons and dark thoughts.

And there is no denying Kyrgios is magnetic TV talent – full of personality and an underrated insight into the game. The initial outcry among senior British MPs and women’s campaigners in the UK when the BBC hired him for its Wimbledon coverage died right down once he demonstrated he has the capacity to be polite and thoughtful on air.

But then Kyrgios gets on X and posts something unpleasant, or demeaning, or sexist, and the other, more endearing parts of him become utterly incongruous. Many of the posts are relatively easy to disregard. The ego-driven declarations that “I’m good for the game period. On and off the court” and “I’ve beaten all the goats of the sport” can be shrugged off as simply fishing for the reaction and publicity upon which he thrives. It is, however, impossible to ignore a post so unpalatable, so misogynistic and so humiliating for the woman in question, whom he has reduced to a pawn in his ongoing beef with Jannik Sinner.

And then the mind recalls how he once told Stan Wawrinka mid-match that “Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend”. How last year he admitted in court to assaulting an ex-girlfriend before a magistrate spared him a criminal record because the incident was “a single act of stupidity or frustration”. And how he was a previous re-tweeter of renowned misogynist Andrew Tate. How to reconcile all this with the fragile kid from Canberra who just wants to be loved?

Andrea Petkovic this week pointed out this contradiction in her latest Substack blog post. “Nick Kyrgios on X. His escapades on there make me sad (and angry but mostly sad),” wrote the German former world No.9. “He could be truly fantastic on TV but he keeps self-sabotaging with misogynist nonsense … unfortunately, he taints it with his online persona.

Nick Kyrgios interviews Novak Djokovic on court at this year’s Australian Open.Credit: Getty

“The one thing that makes or breaks somebody on TV is their authenticity and whether people choose to believe them. For anybody who’s heard [former NFL star quarterback] Tom Brady’s first day on TV, Brady is a perfect example. He knows what he’s talking about, of course he does, but he doesn’t sound it (at least he didn’t sound like it on his first day). And that’s where the disconnect comes from. Nick says good things about women’s tennis on air but if he disparages them online, at one point people will stop believing him on air, too.”

The only conclusion to be drawn is that Kyrgios should not be on air for the foreseeable future. Because, charismatic and insightful and vulnerable as he is, these qualities do not offset abusive and misogynistic behaviour. Many people have been through many shitty things throughout their lives, but that in itself is not a valid excuse for treating others poorly. Kyrgios must be held to these same standards, and broadcasters and news outlets must desist from tolerating, validating and normalising the damaging views he has repeatedly demonstrated he holds about women.

That means past employers such as Eurosport, ESPN and the BBC should exercise some responsibility by ensuring he is not a part of their future coverage. It means this masthead should not allow him to write columns, as it did during the 2024 Australian Open. And it means Nine Entertainment Co, the owner of this masthead and Australian Open broadcast rights holder until 2029, should not consider hiring him as a pundit when he does retire and make moves into tennis commentary – plans which have both been publicly expressed.

This view is not born out of hate. I have long sympathised with many parts of Kyrgios, admire him as a player and enjoy him as a commentator. It is, frankly, the only rational outcome until he offers some solid, consistent evidence of change. All we have presently is a Kyrgios post in response the “second serve” criticism indicating he does not understand. “Abusive? What’s abusive about what I said?” he wrote on September 8. “I had no intention to say anything about it. People wanna go there deal with the consequences.”

Perhaps the best piece of advice is the one he told that Tennis Insider Club podcast episode that he would give his 15-year-old self: “Don’t ever get on social media.”

Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.