Andy Roddick Outrightly Dodges Nick Kyrgios’ Career Update as He Discards the Aussie Badboy’s Comeback Hype

It has been almost close to 500 days since we last saw Nick Kyrgios in action. Recently, the Aussie tennis star made an announcement expressing his desire to participate at his Home Slam in Melbourne in 2025. During an interaction with SXSW (South By Southwest), Kyrgios said that he misses the moment of playing in front of a home crowd. Surely, Aussie tennis fans miss him too. But what about others? Does Andy Roddick miss Nick Kyrgios’ electrifying play on the courts? His 1-word response will sum it up for you.!

On October 22 episode of the Served podcast, Andy Roddick, Jon Wertheim, and Producer Mike discussed the top tennis stories from the past week: Aryna Sabalenka reclaims the World No. 1 spot from Iga Swiatek, Danielle Collins (aka The Danimal) announces her comeback to the WTA tour in 2025 after previously stating her retirement plans, and the Six Kings Slam in Riyadh, where Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, and Holger Rune competed, with Sinner emerging as the champion.

At one point, the American tennis legend was asked to comment on Nick Kyrgios’ comeback. However, Roddick seemed uninterested in answering the question and turned to the producer, saying, “Cool, what else do we have, Mike?” Previously, these two had engaged in a verbal dispute over Jannik Sinner’s doping saga.

Nick Kyrgios has been one of the most prominent critics of the Italian in this controversial incident. However, amid all these criticisms of Sinner, just a few months ago, Roddick made a statement on this whole incident and he seemed to be backing the Italian to a certain extent. The American tweeted, “You get tested at every slam so there’s no chance he was not clean at the Australian Open if he tested as much as he did. The amount in his system is one billionth of a gram, or 58,000 times smaller than a grain of salt.”

After hearing this, Nick Kyrgios came up with a reply claiming, “Do you understand how quickly this stuff exits your system? Cream, gummies literally hours. Ridiculous statement.” Like this, the exchanges went on a bit during that time. 

Although, this time Roddick refrained from sharing a word on the Aussie, there have been instances in the past when we saw him say a few words on Nick Kyrgios. Did he ever praise the Aussie in the past for his flamboyant tennis? 

“He’s like a part-time tennis player…” Andy Roddick on Nick Kyrgios

In the Netflix documentary series ‘Break Point’, we saw a few tennis legends sharing their thoughts on the 29-year-old Aussie. We heard John McEnroe say, “I think he’s the most talented player I’ve seen in 10 years.” However, Andy Roddick went a step further and stated, “He’s like a part-time tennis player. He doesn’t play that often – he takes months off at a time. It’s like a hobby.” Was it a deliberate criticism aimed at the Aussie?

Well, later on, Andy Roddick clarified his stand on this, while replying to a similar question from the fans. He tweeted, “I didn’t ‘slam’ anyone. He is a part-time tennis player by his own admission. Agree w Mac in regards to what I think of Nicks game/talent.” In November last year, Andy Roddick said,

“I’m in the minority here but I don’t want to see him[Nick Kyrgios] back at the Tennis Channel desk here because I’d rather see him on the court, doing his thing, you know, pissing people off left right and centre, being the human highlight show. I want to let the beast out, we need to see the beast. I’d love working with you, Nick. I wish you health going forward. We’re always happy when you’re on the court.” So this shows us that it wasn’t always bitter between these two over the years. Are you excited, though, to see Nick Kyrgios back in action?