"I'm going to embrace the villain role" - Kyrgios on facing native Jubb at Wimbledon

Nick Kyrgios says he will embrace being the "villain" when he faces British wild card Paul Jubb in the Wimbledon first round on Tuesday.

Australian Kyrgios has been in good form heading into the Grand Slam, winning seven out of his nine matches on grass this year with semi-final runs at Stuttgart and Halle before he was forced to withdraw in Mallorca earlier this week due to a minor abdominal strain.

Kyrgios says he is going to enjoy not having the full support of the crowd when he plays Jubb but he gets it:

"I feel like I can put myself in his [Jubb's] shoes very well. I was once that kid that got a wild card at the Australian Open - it felt really good just to be around, soak it all in, the media, the fans, everything, the hype. I've got to ride the waves emotionally out there because the crowd is obviously going to be behind the local. I'm used to wearing that kind of black hat, the villain-type role. I'm going to embrace it."

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Kyrgios also shared his view on the ban imposed on Russian and Belarussian players:

"My honest opinion, I don't think it was a good idea to ban the Russian players to play. As a competitor and someone that wants to go up against them, I'm disappointed they're not here. It's weird not seeing [Daniil] Medvedev here. We all know what he's capable of. It's done now. I'm sure that they're going to be tuning in and watching, wishing they were here. They wanted to play."

Kyrgios will be teaming up with Kokkinakis for the doubles but he's not excited for it:

"I am not really looking forward to playing best-of-five-set doubles - I think it is the stupidest thing ever. I don't know why it is best of five sets. No-one wants to play best-of-five-set doubles, no one wants to watch best-of-five-set doubles."

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