Nick Kyrgios compares Sinner and Alcaraz to Federer and Djokovic: "They don't have the same aura"

Nick Kyrgios compared Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, saying they "don’t have the same aura," drawing a distinction from the legacy of the Swiss and Serbian legends.

Federer held the record for the most Grand Slam titles between 2009 and 2022 (until Nadal surpassed him), finishing his career with 20 major titles, while Djokovic remains the all-time Grand Slam champion with 23 titles, achieving this record with his 23rd trophy at the 2023 French Open, leaving Nadal behind.

Meanwhile, Alcaraz (21 years old) and Sinner (23 years old) are just beginning their careers. The young Spaniard already has four majors under his belt, while Sinner is a bit behind with two, both won this year in Melbourne and New York.

Kyrgios calls Alcaraz and Sinner ‘just kids’

Regarding the burgeoning careers of these young players, Australian Nick Kyrgios shared his thoughts on the comparisons with the Big-3 members. "They are just kids for me," the Australian said on the Nothing Major Podcast. "Alcaraz and Sinner, they are gonna be generational talents and probably some of the best tennis players, but for me, they don't have that aura yet of when I played Federer and Djokovic. They don't have that yet."

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"I couldn't go ahead against Federer with stuff like playing mind games, it just didn't work with him. But I feel like it could work with these guys. It's very possible,” the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up added.

In the same podcast, Kyrgios addressed the controversial doping case of Jannik Sinner, of which he has been a vocal critic. The Australian disagreed with Sinner's decision to return without suspension after testing positive for Clostebol in an anti-doping test. The former world No. 13 will return to the Australian Open in a month and would be pleased to face the Italian. "Let’s be honest, I just want to go out there and I really want to play Sinner.”

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“I thought about this (the game plan). If I played him in the Australian Open, I would just get every single person in the crowd to get on him. I would just turn it into an absolute riot. All respect would go out the window, and I would just do anything to win," he added.

“I feel like why we love sport is because you have to have contrast in personalities. If I draw Sinner in the Australian Open third round, everyone will watch because it’s contrasting personalities. We don’t like each other, and I think it’s healthy in sport,” Nick Kyrgios concluded.