Nick Kyrgios recounted a training invitation from Roger Federer as the Australian tennis star hilariously revealed that he expected the best possible stay before finding out that “Federer put me in a three-star hotel.”
Kyrgios, who is currently out of action due to his ongoing wrist injury, works as a commentator for Eurosport and ESPN during this year’s Australian Open. On Thursday, Kyrgios was on air commentating the Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev match.
At one moment, 28-year-old Kyrgios started telling a story about Federer inviting him to a training block in Switzerland. At the time of the invitation, Kyrgios was at the start of his career.
“He invited me for a training week and I thought I was going to be staying in a five, six-star hotel… he put me in a three-star hotel for two weeks. Cheers Rog! The Wi-Fi was patchy, couldn’t even get a good night’s rest, the guy is out there for three, four hours with me the next day,” Kyrgios said on Eurosport.
When Federer invited Kyrgios to train together, the Australian was curious to see how the Swiss would look on the practice court and what he would actually do considering that he had one of the most complete games in tennis history. But it didn’t take long before Kyrgios realized that Federer was fully committed to details and trying to find ways to get better.
“I was always wondering, ‘How does this guy train, how does he keep getting better?’ He would just create drills he would want to do… work on his slice. So, I’m assuming that there will be things that he feels that he can work on but I didn’t think Federer could work on anything but there he was in Switzerland just getting better.”
Kyrgios recounts beating Rafael Nadal and his ‘lightbulb moment’
After winning the 2013 Australian Open boys’ singles title, Kyrgios was widely regarded as one of the most promising and talented juniors in the game. A year and a half after winning a junior Grand Slam, Kyrgios introduced himself to the tennis world at 2014 Wimbledon.
In his Wimbledon debut, Kyrgios upset former world No. 7 Richard Gasquet and also defeated Stephane Robert and Jiri Vesely en route to making the second week at The Championships. After kicking off his Wimbledon debut with three wins, Kyrgios earned himself a chance to play against Nadal on the Center Court at Wimbledon.
At the time, Kyrgios was just a promising player who was trying to make a name for himself, while Nadal was already one of the best in tennis history and among the top favorites for the Wimbledon title. Although the experience and everything was on Nadal’s side, Kyrgios delivered a very courageous performance and ended up stunning the Spaniard 7-6 (5) 5-7 7-6 (5) 6-3.
“I guess I had the lightbulb moment when I beat Nadal Center Court at Wimbledon,” Kyrgios said during a conversation with celebrity chef Gordan Ramsey on “Good Trouble With Nick Kyrgios.”
“I was going to school. I mean I didn’t even know how good I was at that time. I was just playing because it was just like I was entering the tournament then it happened and then I saw this list of guys who had achieved what I had achieve.
“It was like Federer, Andy Murray, and I was like okay maybe I got to start taking it seriously. Maybe I got to get up off the video games for 6 hours a day, actually eat, actually train.”
After sending Nadal home, Kyrgios’ Wimbledon run ended in the quarterfinal following a defeat to Milos Raonic. Against Raonic, Kyrgios made a good start and won the opening set before the Canadian stormed back to win 6-7 (4) 6-2 6-4 7-6 (4).
Kyrgios’ best Grand Slam result has come at Wimbledon
10 years after beating Nadal and introducing himself to the tennis world, Kyrgios has made a pretty good career for himself. Now, Kyrgios is an eight-time ATP champion and has been ranked as high as No. 13 in the world.
At Wimbledon, Kyrgios achieved his career-best Grand Slam singles result. In 2022, Kyrgios put up a big run at Wimbledon, which saw him make his maiden Grand Slam singles final.
In his first Grand Slam final, Kyrgios faced one of the most difficult tasks – his opponent was Novak Djokovic. Although Kyrgios was playing outstanding throughout the Wimbledon final, world No. 1 Djokovic still managed to find a way to beat the Australian 4-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (3). After the final, Kyrgios was widely praised for his performance, with some stating that the Australian would have definitely won the final if he had played against anyone other than Djokovic.
Last year, Kyrgios was forced to skip Wimbledon due to a wrist injury. Six months later, Kyrgios is still sidelined and also missed the Australian Open due to the same injury. At this year’s Australian Open, Kyrgios revealed that he is targeting to play again around the grass season.
