English businessman and Talksport host Simon Jordan slammed
Nick Kyrgios and called him a silly brat.
The Aussie is among the finest talents tennis has produced in recent years but has not been able to live up to his potential. He has also been in the limelight for his outspokenness and behavior on and off the court.
His most recent outburst came when Ashleigh Barty was awarded the Newcombe Medal, which is awarded to the best Australian tennis player of the year. Kyrgios shared a picture comparing Barty's achievements with his and claimed that he wasn't given any respect.
"Lol! No respect at all. I don't give a f*ck," Kyrgios wrote on his Instagram stories.
Speaking on White and Jordan, the show he hosts on talkSPORT, Simon Jordan said that Kyrgios gets disrespected because he does not win much despite possessing a lot of talent.
Nick Kyrgios is a remarkable mercurial talent, but doesn’t actually win very much," said Jordan. "He’s been to a Grand Slam quarter-final and a final, he’s 27, he hasn’t won a Slam, and there have been great Australian players in the past, Pat Cash, Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt, who actually won things. So while he has got this remarkable talent, I think they [Australia Tennis and media] disrespect him because he respects himself with the waste of his talent at times."
Jordan also slammed Kyrgios' behavior and likened it to that of
John McEnroe, claiming that the American won a lot despite his outbursts.
"And then you add in the puerility of some of his behavior. John McEnroe was awful with some of his on-court behavior but he won, so people began to give him this begrudging respect because his achievements superseded his outbursts," said the 55-year old. "But this guy [Kyrgios] doesn’t win."
Jordan added that while some of Kyrgios' antics were justified, he was a silly brat who did not act like an adult.
"Some of what he does is fair play, like calling out people in the crowd for being drunk and what have you but sometimes, I think he is a silly little brat who doesn’t act like an adult, he acts like a child," he said. "I do think he is an exceptional talent and that makes his inability to do anything particularly formidable on a tennis court actually quite disappointing."