"99% of tennis players do not win a singles Grand Slam" - Nick Kyrgios fires back at critics regarding his underachiever label
ATP
Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios is no stranger to controversy, however, it cannot be denied that the Canberra native is full of talent and could pose a threat to any player on his best day.
The 29-year old has been sidelined with injuries for over a year, but is hoping to make his return at the 2025 Australian Open in front of home fans. Kyrgios achieved his greatest success in Melbourne, when he won the men's doubles title alongside compatriot Thanasi Kokkinakis in 2022.
Kyrgios hoping to correct rumors of him being an underachiever
The former World No.13 has been the subject of vitriol from numerous fans, considering his outspoken nature and incendiary takes. Nonetheless, Kyrgios believes his detractors are wrong when they say he hasn't lived up to his potential.
"To say that I have under-achieved is insanity because I know what I have gone through in my life and where I have come from and just sitting in this room from Canberra, Australia," said Kyrgios on a recent appearance on the Louis Theroux podcast. "The fact that someone has sat here and played in front of the royal family, to me that is not an underachievement at all.
"What I have done in my career and what I have achieved as a person and how I have bounced back from all the negative that I have dealt and turned it into a positive and being able to help people now. I can give advice to young kids which come up and young fans, I look at that as the biggest overachievement that any athlete can give back.
"What I have done in my career and what I have achieved as a person and how I have bounced back from all the negative that I have dealt and turned it into a positive and being able to help people now. I can give advice to young kids which come up and young fans, I look at that as the biggest overachievement that any athlete can give back.
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"As for the temperament thing I think any 19-year-old who got thrown into the deep end with the amount of negativity on social media would have dealt with it in a similar way. I definitely could have gone through it a little smoother, I was reluctant to get help and deal with it, so I prolonged the process of maturing as I was under the spotlight so much.
"But there is no shame in not winning a Grand Slam because 99% of tennis players do not win a singles Grand Slam. Andy Murray, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, playing in their prime they occupied a lot of the grand slams and I have beaten them all as well."
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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