{"id":179723,"date":"2025-06-13T00:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T00:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/179723\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T00:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T00:28:09","slug":"what-rafael-nadal-said-was-lacking-in-nick-kyrgios-game-after-he-beat-him-at-wimbledon-back-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/179723\/","title":{"rendered":"What Rafael Nadal said was lacking in Nick Kyrgios’ game after he beat him at Wimbledon back in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At 30 years old, Nick Kyrgios has seven ATP titles to his name, but has never won a Grand Slam.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Australian has been absent for 10 of the last 11 majors, with his only appearance in the last three years coming at the Australian Open in January. <\/p>\n

After another injury setback, Kyrgios is now set to miss Wimbledon<\/a> this year, which, of the four, is the tournament he has come closest to winning in his career.<\/p>\n

His best attempt at the All England Club came in 2022, when he made the final, before ultimately losing to Novak Djokovic<\/a> over four sets. <\/p>\n

Kyrgios<\/a>\u2018 2022 Wimbledon run gave tennis fans a glimpse of what the former world number 13 is capable of when he\u2019s focused, something that Rafael Nadal<\/a> had foreseen at the tournament three years prior. <\/p>\n

\"RafaelPhoto by Visionhaus\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In 2019, Nadal defeated Kyrgios in the second round of the Championships, in what was a blockbuster match between the two. <\/p>\n

Following the bout, the Spaniard took a moment in his post-match press conference to analyse what is holding Kyrgios back in his career. <\/p>\n

What Rafael Nadal said about Nick Kyrgios after beating him at Wimbledon in 2019<\/p>\n

After his victory in the round of 64, when asked if Kyrgios could win a Grand Slam if he were to try hard on every point, Nadal responded: \u201cIf, if, if\u2026 doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019ve said plenty of times, he is a very talented player, but there are a lot of important things that you need to do to become a champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a lot of good ingredients, you know? But of course, there remains an important one that is the love and passion for this game. Without really loving this game that much, it\u2019s difficult to achieve important things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith his talent and with his serve, he can win a Grand Slam, of course. He has the talent to do it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true that things can be completely different for him if he wants to play all the matches the same way he did today. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you see the first round against Jordan Thompson, he was able to win the match, but the intensity on court, the way that he played and the way he was focused was different than today.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe likes to play these kinds of matches [against the top players], but to win important things, you don\u2019t [only] need to play against the top players, you need to play against other players that are so good too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios\u2019 current relationship in 2025<\/p>\n

Nadal and Kyrgios have always had a frosty relationship, and it remains that way today, Kyrgios confirmed in a recent interview on the Changover Podcast. <\/p>\n

He said of the 22-time major champion: \u201cMe and Rafa don\u2019t like each other at all. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect each other\u2019s games, but I just think two different personalities and two completely different stories. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just don\u2019t like each other. Every time we played each other, I wanted to f\u2014\u2014 throw my racket at him.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI just can\u2019t stand him. He does my head in. But he is a good player. I just wanted to beat him so bad every time. Sometimes when I lost to Fed [Roger Federer], I was like, whatever, too good. But Rafa, it would burn me so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have tension me and Feds. He\u2019s not very intimidating up front and I am a lot bigger than him, so he\u2019s just like a nice guy. He\u2019s very gentle.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Rafa \u2013 I think because my coaches loved Rafa in my academy, they were like you need to work as hard as Rafa, you have to have the heart, it was always Rafa, Rafa, Rafa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyrgios beat Nadal three times in the nine clashes they had together, winning their first bout in 2014 at Wimbledon, at the Cincinnati Masters in 2017, and at Acapulco in 2019. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 30 years old, Nick Kyrgios has seven ATP titles to his name, but has never won a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[15171,4296,79,1068,16,15,5068],"class_list":{"0":"post-179723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-nick-kyrgios","9":"tag-rafael-nadal","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-wimbledon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114673228480590488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}