Kyrgios Criticizes Wimbledon Champions Sinner & Swiatek Over Doping Cases

Nick Kyrgios just dropped some pretty harsh opinions about tennis right now. He’s not holding back when it comes to Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek both making it to the Wimbledon finals after their doping bans.

And honestly? He thinks it looks terrible for the sport.

Sinner served a three-month suspension that ended just days before this year’s Italian Open. This came after he tested positive for clostebol at the 2024 Indian Wells tournament, though he eventually reached a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Swiatek got hit with a one-month ban for testing positive for trimetazidine.

Most people think the Polish star got pretty unlucky here. She’d been taking melatonin tablets – which tons of players use and it’s totally legal. Problem was, hers were contaminated and there’s no way she could’ve known that.

Kyrgios Goes After Sinner Hard

While Kyrgios has been critical of Swiatek’s situation, he’s really gone after Sinner with both barrels. The Australian has said repeatedly that he doesn’t buy the Italian’s explanation of how the positive test happened.

He wanted a much longer ban.

Speaking to the i Paper, Kyrgios laid out exactly why he thinks having both players in the Wimbledon finals is bad news for tennis:

"At the end of the day, the decision has been made, and it’s kind of in the past. Do I think it’s a good look for the sport that [Iga] Swiatek [who served a one-month suspension for an inadvertent positive test last year] and Sinner are in the final at Wimbledon after serving a ban? I don’t think it’s a good look for the sport."

But here’s the thing – Kyrgios also admits there’s nothing anyone can do about it now.

"And I think people could agree. But I’m not going to sit there and talk about that [on commentary] in the final. They’ve been playing some incredible tennis. Sinner, he served a ban, which do I agree with? No. But he came back and he’s been playing some excellent tennis."

Tennis Is “Pretty Boring” Right Now

Kyrgios didn’t stop there. The 2022 Wimbledon runner-up gave a brutally honest take on where tennis stands today.

Even though the quality of play is amazing, he thinks the sport desperately needs more big personalities and real rivalries.

"At the moment, tennis is pretty boring, to be honest. There’s not many rivalries. I’ve watched and broken it down and been commentating on it: the level is amazing. But there’s more rivalries and more excitement on the women’s side. Raducanu vs Sabalenka was an amazing match, Anisimova vs Sabalenka, there was more bitterness and more of a rivalry in these matches than I’m seeing on the men’s side."

He’s got a point about the women’s game having more drama right now.

"We watch sport for the excitement of two people, maybe not liking each other. I think we’ve got some great personalities as well. I think [Jack] Draper going down early, [Frances] Tiafoe going down, and some of these more personality guys that went down early didn’t help."

The 30-year-old also touched on tennis’s biggest problem – the legends are aging out.

"I’m not saying Alcaraz and Sinner need to have been in a fight or anything like that. It’s hard because the game is missing Federer and Nadal, and Djokovic has… well, he said that it’s not his last match, but I don’t know how believable that is from how I saw him physically [against Sinner]. Alcaraz and Sinner are going to be carrying the torch for the next 10 to 15 years."

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are done. Novak Djokovic looked pretty finished physically in his match against Sinner, despite saying it wasn’t his last match.

That leaves Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner to carry men’s tennis for the next decade or more.

Whether you love him or hate him, Kyrgios always finds ways to get people talking about tennis. He recently announced plans to play a Battle of the Sexes match against Aryna Sabalenka.

The sport might be "boring" in his eyes, but at least someone’s trying to shake things up.