"What about next year in your town?": Kyrgios challenges Alcaraz to an exhibition match

Nick Kyrgios has challenged world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz to an exhibition match in Spain.

The 28-year-old tennis player once again engaged in a round of questions and answers on Instagram, asking his fans for "fun questions."

Kyrgios is currently sidelined from the ATP tour due to an injury and recently announced that he will not be participating in the ATP 500 Washington, where he was the champion in 2022. Despite being out of competition, a fan asked Kyrgios about the possibility of facing world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in the future.

Even though he is currently unable to play, Kyrgios expressed that he would have liked to face the young Spanish player in 2022 when he was at his best level, and he expressed his interest in playing against Alcaraz in the future.

"He is a force for sure. I would have loved to see how it would of gone down last year when I was healthy and playing lights out. Carlos Alcaraz, what about next year in your town we do an exhibition?," Kyrgios captioned on his Instagram stories.

Carlos Alcaraz and Nick Kyrgios have not had the opportunity to face each other in an official match so far. However, both players have publicly expressed their respect and mutual admiration on previous occasions.

In another question during the Instagram Q&A session, Kyrgios was also asked about the situation that the Swedish tennis player Mikael Ymer faced on the ATP tour. Ymer was suspended from competition for a period of 18 months after missing three doping tests within one year.

"Ridiculous. Yme is one of the nicest guys on tour. And he shouldn't be banned," Kyrgios wrote.

As of 2023, Nick Kyrgios has only played one match, suffering a defeat in the first round of the Stuttgart Open against Wu Yibing. Despite this, his strong results in the latter part of 2022 have kept him in the upper echelons of the rankings, currently standing at World No. 35. However, the significant number of points he must defend in the upcoming weeks will likely lead to a substantial drop in the rankings, causing him to fall out of the top-100.