Coach Dmitry Tursunov believes Nick Kyrgios being who he is one of the biggest reasons why the Australian is selling out stadiums. Kyrgios, the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up, is often criticized for his behavior on and off the court.
But the fact is that tournaments want Kyrgios because there is always a big interest in his matches as the Australian is one of the best when it comes to selling tickets. “Players are afraid to show their personality, to say their minds, because nowadays anything you say can be twisted.
You say that, ‘I played great today,’ someone’s going to say that, ‘Oh, he sounds cocky, he’s putting his opponent down.’ So players in general are just afraid to be themselves. That’s why I think Nick Kyrgios sells out every freaking stadium that he plays in because he hasn’t been neutered enough.
He’s been fined enough, but he doesn’t mind it. He’s a very strong personality of you ask me. I mean, what’s the problem if a player is just throwing a middle finger to the crowd? It looks bad, the whole crowd is booing, but you just got the crowd emotionally involved,” Tursunov said on The Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast, per Sportskeeda.
Tursunov thinks a personality like Kyrgios isn’t damaging to tennis
Just before the start of the 2023 season, Kyrgios pulled out late from the United Cup, which led to a widespread criticism of the Australian. Kyrgios, who was featured in the very first episode ot Netflix’s Break Point, had a message for his critics.
“Haha so after all this, all the media, journalism saying how bad I am for the sport, disrespecting the game & just a pure villain, I am going to be the number 1 episode on Netflix – to grow our fan base, basically trying to put tennis on the map again.
And essentially putting more money in everyone’s pockets that’s involved with tennis, you all look really ridiculous now. Your apology should be as loud as your disrespect was,” Kyrgios wrote on Twitter in late December.
