Nick Kyrgios tears into Jannik Sinner ahead of long-awaited comeback

The 2022 Wimbledon finalist insisted he can still compete at the highest level of the game, even though he admitted his wrist injury could have been 'career ending'.

Yet it was his new attack on world No 1 Jannik Sinner that has stirred the annimosity towards the Italian who will be aiming to defend the Australian Open title he won in Melbourne last January.

Kyrgios has been the most outspoken critic of the lack of punishement for Sinner after he failed a drug test during the Masters 1000 tournament at Indian Wells last March and now he has taken is criticism to the next level.

The Aussie was asked by reporters in Brisbane if he was 'having a bit of fun' with his snipes at Sinner over the last few months and it was clear from his answer that he was very serious in his comments.

"First of all, I mean, someone like me who I would never even in my entire life ever try and dope in this sport," he stated, clearly keen to use his platform to speak out about the doping

"This is something, I mean, especially going through an injury like I went through, obviously there are things out there that could speed up healing, help me get back to prime level, help my recovery.

"There's so many things out there that are prohibited in our sport that I could have been doing to get me back quicker.

"Two years out of the sport in my prime, basically I was 28, competing for Wimbledon, US Open. I had an injury where I could have been doing things to get back. That's just not who I am. I'm always against that.

"So for me when people are saying that I'm disrespectful to the sport, I think someone like that that has tried to cheat the process, and actually not done it completely on their own merit, is the disrespectful one in my opinion."

Kyrgios went on to suggest he has a duty to speak out against Sinner due to the silence of others in tennis, as he commented on the latest doping story that involved Australian doubles Grand Slam champion Max Purcell.

"I have to be outspoken about it because I don't think there's enough people that are speaking about it," he continued.

"I think people are trying to sweep it under the rug and saying that about the amount and all this. It's like nothing about that. And there's not fair treatment for every single player.

"We've seen that with Max Purcell. The reason that's different is because he went to the authorities first, he admitted he had done something that was on the prohibited list. He was outspoken about it. That's how it should be, rather than all this sweeping under the rug, not knowing, question marks.

"Okay, he's No 1 in the world, he is an amazing tennis player. I never said he's not. I just think the treatment has to be fair for everyone. I just think that it's been handled horrifically in our sport. Two world No. 1s both getting done for doping is disgusting for our sport. It's a horrible look.

"Yeah, the tennis integrity right now, and everyone knows it, but no one wants to speak about it, it's awful. It's actually awful. And it's not okay.

"I know that people don't like when I just speak out about things, be honest about things. For a kid that grew up playing tennis, I enjoyed the competition, I enjoyed playing. I can get emotional, I can throw a racquet, but that's nothing compared to cheating and taking performance-enhancing drug performance-enhancing drugs. That's ridiculous in my opinion.

"I'm not going to shut up about it anyway. Like, yeah. Sorry, I probably went a bit too long. That's just my honest thoughts."

When asked whether he was convinced Sinner had done 'something wrong' as he failed his drug test, Kyrgios didn't hold back in his comments.

"Well, I mean, your question is do I think that he failed two steroid drug tests, which factually happened? He did fail two doping tests at separate times, as well," he added.

"It wasn't one after the other. They were a different time frame. So, I mean, if you think that that's the way that it got in his system. If that's how you think it's happened, then...

"I mean, if he didn't do anything wrong, then why did they take his prize money and points away? Obviously they found something wrong with it. Obviously WADA has appealed it because of all this.

"I employ my team hundreds and thousands of dollars to be the professionals they are, to make sure that doesn't happen. So they knew it happened. Why did they wait five to six months to do anything about it?

"He kept his team for five months. Do you know what I mean? Like, that doesn't make sense. Like if they knew about it two weeks later, why did you keep the same team?

"I'd be livid. If my physiotherapist contaminated me, put me in this position, I would probably never talk to the guy again. He had the guy on his team for five months, acting like nothing happened. That's susses anything, if you ask me, yeah."

Kyrgios is refusing to hold back in his criticism of Sinner and now the tennis world will wait to see if these two combatants are drawn to play in what would be a grudge match at the Australian Open.

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