Tennis podcasts usually stick to match previews, player evaluation and rankings talk. But every so often, one turns into something closer to a courtroom cross-examination.
That’s what happened on the latest episode of Served with Andy Roddick. The host stopped talking about tennis and started talking about accountability. His target was Nick Kyrgios, and he did not hold back.
MORE: Tennis star Nick Kyrgios tests positive for cocaine, stepping away from ‘public life’
What Andy Roddick said about Nick Kyrgios on the Served podcast
Nick Kyrgios (AUS) hits a forehand against Jannik Sinner (ITA) in a fourth-round men’s singles match.
Kyrgios tested positive for cocaine during an ATP 250 event in Mallorca, Spain, in June. A World Anti-Doping Agency lab confirmed the result the following month. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) placed him under a mandatory provisional suspension starting August 4. He has not appealed. Kyrgios owned up to it in an Instagram post, writing he made “a huge mistake” and would step away from social media for 28 days.
Roddick was not moved by the apology. On his podcast, he laid out why. “It’s all documented,” Roddick said.
“You’ve fueled comments and cyberbullying that have spread to the posts of Sinner, Swiatek, and even to mine, accusing me of using steroids. And yet you want people to understand your mistake because you were going through a tough time due to online hate. It’s hypocritical, simply hypocritical.”
Roddick’s point was direct. Kyrgios spent months publicly attacking Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek over their own doping cases. He offered little sympathy for the context behind their positive tests. Now that Kyrgios is asking people to understand his own circumstances, Roddick says that the standard should apply equally in both directions.
How this fits into a longer pattern for Kyrgios
Nick Kyrgios (AUS) reacts towards his player’s box after losing a point against Mackenzie McDonald (USA).
This is not the first time Roddick has called out Kyrgios for hypocrisy, and it will likely not be the last. Sinner tested positive for clostebol twice in March 2024. His team attributed it to contact with a masseur’s healing spray. An independent tribunal cleared him of intentional wrongdoing. Swiatek accepted a one-month ban in late 2024 after testing positive for trimetazidine, which she said came from contaminated melatonin she used for jet lag.
Kyrgios went after both of them repeatedly, calling the situation “disgusting for our sport” and questioning whether either explanation held up. He also targeted people who defended the two stars, including a 16-year-old, Cruz Hewitt, son of former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, after the teenager posted a photo with Sinner.
MORE: Viral Coco Gauff post-match interview leaves ‘Kyrgios catching strays’
Roddick also brought up Kyrgios’ 2023 guilty plea to a charge of common assault against a former girlfriend. A case in which a magistrate did not record a conviction. Roddick argued that Kyrgios asked for context and understanding in that situation too. This makes his refusal to extend the same grace to Sinner and Swiatek harder to defend.
Kyrgios has not competed regularly since 2022 because of injuries, and his ranking has fallen to 919th. Whatever the ITIA decides on the length of his ban, this exchange with Roddick shows how much of Kyrgios’ public identity in recent years has been built on criticizing other players. Roddick’s argument is simple. If Kyrgios wants patience now, he should have offered some when it wasn’t his name attached to a positive test.
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